Rocksteady

From Jamaica Wiki

Contents 1 About RockSteady 2 History

[edit] About RockSteady

Rocksteady is the name of a music genre that became popular between the years 1966 and 1968 in Jamaica. Rock steady was a dance style as mentioned in the song by Alton Ellis and the term was taken from that. This evolved during the times when the ska musicians were influenced by soul and gospel and wanted to mix new ideas from them. Toots & the Maytals, the Gaylads, the Paragons, and the Kingstonians who were the Jamaican vocal harmony groups performed rocksteady that was a precursor of reggae and successor of ska. While saxophones and trumpets were replaced by pianos and guitars in the ska era, Rocksteady had more relaxed and slower tempo and a more prominent and heavier walking bass line. Rocksteady dances were more relaxed compared to dances of earlier ska.

[edit] History

Rocksteady evolved during the days when the urban Kingston and ghettos started to flood with young countryside people from Jamaica. Those youngsters were not sharing the sentiment of joy that the new country were sharing after the independence. Most of the poverty stricken young men became delinquents who started being called as rude boys. Though they were had been existing as the rude boy phenomenon during the ska days, they became popular with songs such as No Good Rudie by Justin Hinds & the Dominoes, Rude Boy Gone A Jail by the Clarendonians and Don't Be A Rude Boy by The Rulers during the rocksteady era. One of the most popular hit of rocksteady, Girl I've Got a Date, by Alton Ellis gave him the credit of being called the father of rocksteady. However other candidates during the initial rocksteady singles are Tougher Than Tough by Derrick Morgan, Take It Easy by Hopeton Lewis, and Hold Them by Roy Shirley.

The Lyrics of rocksteady were mainly focused on rude boys or love or just some simple dance tunes. American soul recordings were usually covered with Rocksteady singers. The theme from A Summer Place was lifted for the crystalites and "Ilya Kuryakin" by Ike Bennet. Drummer Winston Grennan, keyboard player Jackie Mittoo, guitarist Lynn Taitt, saxophonist Tommy McCook and bassist Jackie Jackson were the musicians that created the music. However Rocksteady existed for around 2 years as a musical style. That is exactly the reason why the rocksteady original recordings were tougher to find than the recordings from reggae era and ska. Comparing with rocksteady that short-lived for about two years, classic reggae survived about a decade and ska lasted several years too. During late 1960s rocksteady evolved into reggae due to several factors. The reasons were such as the up gradation of Jamaican studio technology, the emigration of key musical arrangers Lynn Taitt and Jackie Mittoo to Canada contributed a remarkable style of the recordings and effect of the sound.

The bass patterns were turning more complex and dominated the arrangements, and electrical organ replaced the piano in the mix. Though rocksteady short-lived in Jamaican popular music, they largely influenced dancehalls and reggae later. Even today the contemporary Jamaican music follows the original bass lines created in rocksteady songs.