Bob Marley's distinctive music, an amalgamation of American and Jamaican popular music styles, incorporated elements of soul, doo-wop, and ska and emphasized simple, melodic bass lines over a hesitation beat, or the offbeat. His song writing consistently reflected his Rastafarian spiritual beliefs in peace, love, equality, and hope for all people and of unification and empowerment for the black race. He deserves praise as a great singer/songwriter, and arguably the one true international superstar reggae music has produced... But he was just one contributor to a musical genre that has had more influence on popular music than anything except the blues.

Sure, reggae has been covered by a whole host of mainstream artists - everyone from Eric Clapton to The Clash¹ and the Fugees² - but reggae's more enduring influence has come from its dance hall scene and production innovations. The huge sound systems, the prominence of drum and bass, DJ toasters chatting over rhythm tracks, the mind-bending rhythm scapes of dub music, where the vocals are dropped in and out of the mix, have all had a huge influence on rap and the current dance and rave scenes.

For a tiny island nation of around two million people, Jamaica's influence is astounding; and Reggae itself covers a vast gamut of sounds, from the early ska of the Ethiopians, to the dapper militancy of early Gregory Isaacs recordings or the digital phase kick-started by King Jammy. However, there's always one characteristic that's a dread give-away, the syncopation probably best described by early vocal stylist Alton Ellis³,

I see the whole a dem as one sound, y'know - this is a lickle bit faster, this a lickle bit slower; this time the emphasis is on the drum, the nex'time the emphasis is on the bassline, but basically the nerve centre of Jamaican music is the aftabeat.

It comes partly from the early Jamaican music called mento, partly from Afro-Cuban forms such as the mambo and the rhumba, and partly from the huge influence that American rhythm-and-blues had on Jamaica in the late '50s and early '60s. It was around then that R&B crossed over to white teenage audiences in the US; and Jamaican sound system owners found their supply of the music they preferred was drying up. They turned to locally-produced versions and soon the sound they loved began to sound more Jamaican, with that distinctive emphasis on the offbeat; and so ska was born, just in time for Jamaica's Independence in 1962.

Reggae, from its roots in slavery days, when central and west coast Africans were brought to Jamaica by the English to work on the plantations, through its various forms and messages, is still growing today. Bob Marley can rest in peace.

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¹ Formed in 1976, The Clash were one of the first punk bands to grace the British music scene.
² The Fugees included Wyclef Jean, his cousin Prakazrel Michel, and Lauryn Hill, who had met the other two in high school.
³ Alton Ellis is considered to be an early exponent of the short-lived rock steady reggae style.