rocksteady
(ˈrɒkˌstɛdɪ)
Also rock-steady, rock steady.
[f. rock n.3 2 + steady a. 4.]
A style of popular music, originating in Jamaica, characterized by slow tempo and stressed off-beat. Also, a dance to such music. Also attrib. Cf. reggae.
| 1969 Observer 12 Jan. 3/8 West Indian teenagers..nowadays..danced to music called ‘rocksteady’. Ibid. 23 Nov. 25/8 Aspiring Kingston..dancing the Reggae, Jamaica's successor to the Ska and the Rocksteady. 1971 A. Salkey in One Love 7 We have been quick to recognise the excellence and the appeal in the musical alternative of the..Rock Steady and Reggae. 1971 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 30 July 7/4 As ska, rocksteady or blue⁓beat, music like this has been around in Britain for more than a decade, hidden amidst the West Indian subculture in London, Birmingham and elsewhere. 1973 Telegraph-Jrnl. (St. John, New Brunswick) 28 July 5/2 A West Indian rock-steady band was playing. 1977 McKnight & Tobler Bob Marley iii. 41 Ska mutated into ‘rock steady’... Rock steady was slower in tempo than ska—again to assist the singers in their unenviable task of shouting louder than the volcanic eruptions produced by a bass player with..amplification... Rock steady is further distinguished from ska by the extra syncopation involved. Ibid. vi. 72 It was 1968 and Johnny Nash, a black American singer..had achieved several hits with rock steady type songs. 1980 Melody Maker 19 Jan. 25/4 Saxa played with some of the early rock-steady acts that toured Britain, like Desmond Dekker and Laurel Aitken. |