The Development of Reggae

Jamaican music flowed in the dances, the evening gatherings in clubs or outside where recorded music, usually American R&B, was played. When rock emerged as the dominant music in the U.S., the supply of R&B slowly dried up, and by the late 1950s Jamaicans were making their own music.
In 1960, musicians turned the beat around, placing the emphasis on the second and fourth beats of each bar, rather than the usual first and third.
The new style became known as ska, and proved incredibly popular with Jamaicans, making stars of Toots and the Maytals and Delroy Wilson, among many others, as well as the Skatalites, the house band at Studio One, the main hit making label of the era.
In the hot, violent summer of 1966, rock steady emerged, a slower style to calm things down, with Treasure Isle as the leading label. Most people agree that the first reggae record was "Do The Reggay," by Toots and the Maytals in 1968. Reggae mixed the beat of ska with the more mobile bass lines of rock steady, a little faster than the latter, but not as sprightly as ska