Everything in reggae revolves around rhythm, Reggae has a lot of offbeat beats. These are often staccato beats performed by a guitar or piano (sometimes both) on the measure's offbeats. Most reggae music has a 'jumpy' quality as a result of this, the bass guitar is essential for keeping the rhythm.
Reggae’s origins can be traced back to Ska and Rocksteady, two popular Jamaican music styles before reggae's advent. Emerging in the 1960s, popular Jamaican artists began to switch from rocksteady musicians to Reggae musicians. Early reggae songs touched on romance and women, but by the 70s, the genre began touching on more spiritual and political themes due to its association with the Rastafari movement.
Reggae’s origins can be traced back to Ska and Rocksteady, two popular Jamaican music styles before reggae's advent. Emerging in the 1960s, popular Jamaican artists began to switch from rocksteady musicians to Reggae musicians. Bob Marley’s and the Wailers performance at Zimbabwe’s independence ceremonies in April of 1980, is often regarded as the beginning of reggae in Africa. But despite enthralling thousands and inspiring the rise of Zimbabwe’s reggae scene, Marley’s performance and reception were a result of the spread of the genre in Africa two decades before through his and Jimmy Cliff’s music.
The history of reggae in Africa can be traced across various countries, where bands and musicians began experimenting with reggae rhythms, adding them to their sets/songs before the formation of reggae groups and the eventual rise of the genre as a distinct piece of music.
The Jamaican accent is usually heavy in most reggae songs, since it originated from there. Lyrically, most reggae music comes from a deep sense of animosity and the need for survival and to be fighters.
Most of the chords follow common progressions such as I – V – vi – IV (in the key of C, this would be C – G – A min – F). The majority of reggae bass sections are just riffs (melodic patterns) with frequent octave leaps. Other instruments fill in spaces between the complex polyrhythm. while
Reggae is closely associated with the Rastafari movement, as they both went international around the same time, with Reggae serving as an important medium to spread the Rastafari message. Early reggae songs touched on romance and women, but by the 70s, due to it’s association with the Rastafari movement, the genre began touching on more spiritual and political themes.
The bass provides weight and anchor giving the Reggae genre a Dark, Round feeling.
A decent amount of reggae songs are written using the 4/4 meter with a heavy emphasis on the offbeat. The average tempo of a reggae tune ranges between 80 – 110 BPM, slightly slower than the usual commercial pop song. This can be attributed to how reggae has a strong groove that would only make sense with slower tempos.