Early Reggae
The first years after rocksteady: organ shuffle, heavier bass, sharper offbeat and records moving quickly between Jamaican dances and British youth culture. The sound was still deciding what “reggae” could mean.
GO DEEPER
Around 1968, Jamaican musicians and producers began pushing beyond rocksteady into a new rhythmic feel that soon carried the name reggae. The tempo often rose, the organ and guitar offbeat became more insistent, bass stayed central and producers kept testing variations from record to record. Toots & The Maytals’ “Do the Reggay” helped name the music, while The Pioneers, The Upsetters, Desmond Dekker, The Ethiopians and many others shaped its first years. In Britain, some of this music became strongly associated with working-class mod and skinhead audiences and was later marketed as “skinhead reggae.” That British audience is part of the record’s route, not the source of the Jamaican music itself, and the term should be handled historically rather than used as the universal name for early reggae.
Where the history is argued
- Several records from late 1967 and 1968 are claimed as the first reggae recording. Early Reggae is presented as an emergence period, not a one-song invention.
How they stand with the others
Grew intoThe transition from rocksteady to reggae happened across many overlapping records rather than one clean switch.
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Last checked 1 September 2026