Rocksteady is a musical form originated in Jamaica in 1966. A successor of ska and the precursor to reggae, this slower dance style was the dominant form of music on the island from 1966 to 1968. The musicians who created the rocksteady sound out of ska, were well versed in jazz. It was built around the “one drop” drumbeat characterized by a heavy accent on the third beat of very bar. Guitar and piano players experimented with occasional accents around the basic offbeat pattern. The slower tempo allowed bass players to explore more “broken syncopated figures”. Rocksteady is influenced by other genres such as rhythm n’ blues, Cuban and other caribbean sounds and African drumming. In rocksteady the lead guitar usually “doubles the bassline in a muted picking style”. Musician Lynn Tait is credited for creating this style of picking the guitar strings. It must me noted that although this genre’s name contains the word “rock”, it has nothing to do with rock n’ roll music. At that time in Jamaica there were many harmony groups such as The Techniques, The Paragons, The Heptones, The Clarendonians and The Gaylads. There were many soulful singers: Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe, A young Dennis Brown(11 years old) and Phillis Dillon to name a few. The brilliant musicians who created this influencial sound included Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Tait and Tommy McCook. The genre got it’s name from one of Alton Ellis’s hits “Rocksteady”. As the lyrics explain: “people get ready, come do rocksteady,…you got to do this new dance just like freddy”. Other early hits include, “Take it easy” by Hopeton Lewis, “Tougher than tough” by Derrick Morgan and “Hold them” by Roy Shirley. As the tempo slowed band sizes got smaller and this lead to much more focus on the bassline in general. This polished bassline became one of the most recognizable characteristics of Jamaican music. By the end of the 1960’s, rocksteady was steadily evolving into it’s succesor reggae. Around the same time, two key musical arrangers, Jackie Mittoo and Lynn Tait emigrated to Canada, Jamaican studio technology was becoming more advanced and bass patterns more complex. There was also the introduction of a scratchier more percussive guitar. The late 60’s in Jamaica was symbolized by the rastafarian movement, a recently independent nation, political maneuverings and the humble beginnings of crime and violence. As rocksteady became less popular, many songs were less focused on romance. The songs of the emerging reggae genre were focused on black conciousness, politics and protest. The 1977 release of the movie “The Harder they Come” starring reggae singer Jimmy Cliff and the meteoric rise of Bob Marley and The Wailers and other reggae acts, brought reggae to an international audience that rocksteady didn’t reach. Although short lived, rocksteady has a profound influence on what followed; reggae, dub and dancehall. Many basslines originally created for rocksteady songs are still used in contemporary Jamaican music to this day.