Reggae is a music genre developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.
The term reggae is sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, although the word specifically indicates a particular music style that originated after the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based on a rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the off-beat, known as the skank. The tempo is generally slower than that found in ska and rocksteady. Reggae is often associated with the Rastafari movement, which influenced many prominent reggae musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. Reggae song lyrics deal with many subjects, including faith, love, relationships, poverty, injustice and other broad social issues.

Roots reggae

Roots reggae is a spiritual Rastafari subgenre of reggae music with lyrics that often include praise for Jah Ras Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia; the Emperor of Ethiopia. Recurrent lyrical themes include poverty and resistance to the oppression of government.

The heydey of roots reggae is usually considered the late 1970s, with singers such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, Barrington Levy, and Lincoln Thompson teaming up with producers such as Lee 'Scratch' Perry, King Tubby, and Coxsone Dodd. The experimental pioneering of such producers within often-restricted technological parameters gave birth to dub, and is seen by some music historians as one of the earliest (albeit analogue) contributions to modern dance music production techniques. Some of the most popular artists in the 2000s Jamaican roots reggae scene are I Wayne, Richie Spice, Sizzla, Capleton and Jah Cure.