Rocksteady is a music genre that was most popular in Jamaica, starting around 1966, and its reggae successor was established around 1968.
The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rock Steady". A successor to Jamaican ska, and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Kingstonians, The Maytals and The Paragons. Dances performed to rocksteady were less energetic than the earlier ska dance moves. Rocksteady differs from ska musically as the tempo is slower and more relaxed. The bass is heavier and more prominent in the mix and in addition, the bass lines abandon the earlier "walking" style of the ska period in favor of more broken, syncopated figures. The ska-style back beat and the emphasis on the offbeat carried over into rocksteady.
"Rock Steady" is the lead single taken from Studio 1 news_dm" target="_blank">uk.news.launch.com "All Saints: Back", September 20, 2006 03:07 PM (Accessed: September 20, 2006) , the 2006 comeback album from _All Saints. It was announced in January of 2006 that the band had reunited and signed a deal with Parlophone and a release would be due out in the autumn. The single was released on November 6, 2006. It returned them to the UK singles chart, where the single peaked at #3. It became the band's first Top Ten hit since 2001. The song was given its first ever radio airplay on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 2006. The single was released digitally to iTunes Canada on October 30, 2006, with remix EPs released on November 7, 2006. Its overall sales are 105,000 in UK.
