Toasting or deejaying is the act of talking, usually in a monotone melody, over a rhythm or beat by a deejay. It can either be improvised or pre-written. Toasting developed in Jamaica, before it took up that name and being part of the sound system era, a similar sound of it is found in mento and now can be heard over musical styles including ska, reggae, dancehall, dub, grime, hip hop, soca and bouyon music. The combination of singing and toasting is known as singjaying.
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term rocksteady comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.
The Folkes Brothers are a Jamaican group, composed of John Folkes, Mico Folkes, and Eric Joseph ("Junior") Folkes, and are the originators of the hit single "Oh Carolina".
Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a subgenre of reggae. Bob Marley cited Brown as his favourite singer, dubbing him "The Crown Prince of Reggae", and Brown would prove influential on future generations of reggae singers.
Millicent Dolly May Small CD was a Jamaican singer who is best known for her international hit "My Boy Lollipop" (1964). The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star and its most successful female performer.
Derrick Morgan OD is a Jamaican musical artist who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff in the rhythm and blues and ska genres, and he also performed rocksteady and skinhead reggae.
Derrick Clifton Harriott OD is a Jamaican singer and record producer. He was a member of the Jiving Juniors with Herman Sang before embarking on a solo career. He has produced recordings by Big Youth, Chariot Riders, The Chosen Few, Dennis Brown, The Ethiopians, Keith & Tex, The Kingstonians, Rudy Mills, Scotty, Sly & Revolutionaries, and Winston McAnuff.
Junior Murvin was a Jamaican reggae musician. He is best known for the single "Police and Thieves", produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry in 1976.
The Slickers were a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae group in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Alpha Cottage School was the name of the vocational residential school on South Camp Road in Kingston, Jamaica, still run by Roman Catholic nuns. Established in 1880 as a "school for wayward boys", it became renowned for both the discipline it instilled in its pupils and the outstanding musical tuition they received. In 2014 Alpha's residence closed and the school continued as Alpha Institute to focus on educational and vocational training for inner city unattached youth.
Owen Gray, also known as Owen Grey, is a Jamaican musician. His work spans the R&B, ska, rocksteady, and reggae eras of Jamaican music, and he has been credited as Jamaica's first home-grown singing star.
Sydney Crooks, also known as Sidney Crooks, Sidney Roy, Luddy Pioneer, Luddy Crooks, Brother Coleand now Norris Cole, is a Jamaican singer and record producer, and founder and original member of the classic Jamaican vocal trio The Pioneers since 1962.
Herman Davis, better known as Bongo Herman, is a Jamaican hand-drummer, percussionist and singer who has had a successful career stretching back to the early 1960s.
Kenneth Lloyd Khouri was a pioneering Jamaican record producer and founder of Federal Records, the first recording studio in Jamaica, which was sold to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong record label in 1981. He is credited by reggae historians for the birth of rocksteady in the 1960s. Rocksteady later mixed with Jamaican mento, a genre in which Khouri also had a pioneering role, leading to the creation of reggae music.
The Kingstonians were a Jamaican rocksteady/reggae vocal group best known for their late 1960s recordings for producer Derrick Harriott.
Dennis Sindrey was an Australian-born calypso, mento, Jamaican shuffle and ska singer, songwriter and guitarist.
This Is Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960–1975 is a reggae retrospective anthology issued as a 4-CD box set in 2004 by Trojan Records. The anthology, which was compiled by Colin Escott and Bas Hartong, is arranged in chronological order and features tracks by various artists, starting with mento and ska from the first half of the 1960s, then progressing to the slower rhythms of rocksteady and reggae, which both emerged later in the decade, continuing into the 1970s. Several of the acts featured are Derrick Morgan, Desmond Decker & the Aces, Toots & the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, and Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Stanley Motta was an electronics store proprietor who established a record label in Kingston, Jamaica and opened the first privately owned recording studio in Jamaica in 1951, jump starting Jamaica's music industry.
Joe White was a U.K. based Jamaican singer and musician who had several hits when he was in his home country. He was part of the duos, Joe White and Chuck, Joe & Della, Joe White & Irene, the trio Goe White Glen & Trevor, and other ensembles.
