Reggae Music on Vinyl Records

Reggae is a style of music that originated in Jamaica and falls under the Latin music genre. The term also refers to the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. At first, American music was very popular in Jamaica. Later, musicians began to experiment with music themselves. Ska came into existence, then rocksteady until finally in 1968 reggae appeared. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay," was the first popular song to use the word "reggae," giving the musical style its name and introducing it to a worldwide audience. Sometimes the term reggae is used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music. But better still it denotes the musical style that was heavily influenced by traditional mento as well as American jazz and rhythm-and-blues, especially the New Orleans R&B that was sung and played by Fats Domino and Allen Toussaint.

Some key players in this sound include Jackie Jackson of Toots and the Maytals, Carlton Barrett of Bob Marley and the Wailers (Bob Marley was also the man who popularized reggae outside of Jamaica). Also Lloyd Brevett of The Skatalites, Paul Douglas of Toots and the Maytals, Lloyd Knibb of The Skatalites, Winston Grennan, Sly Dunbar, and Anthony "Benbow" Creary of The Upsetters. Jamaican Peter Tosh was also first a member of the Wailers, but later went solo. With Mick Jagger, he released the song "Don't Look Back" in 1979.