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55 albums · 1957–2022

Music of Jamaica, from the Skatalites, Prince Buster and rocksteady to Bob Marley, Burning Spear, King Tubby's dub, dancehall and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Jamaica's recorded music grew out of the sound systems of Kingston, where in the late fifties and sixties the horn players of the Skatalites, Prince Buster on Orange Street and Desmond Dekker turned American rhythm & blues and mento into ska. As the beat slowed in the hot summers of 1966 and 1967, rocksteady gave the island its vocal trios and balladeers—Alton Ellis, Phyllis Dillon, the Paragons and the Melodians—at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle and Coxsone Dodd's Studio One, while Jimmy Cliff and Toots and the Maytals carried the new word, reggae, around the world.

In the seventies roots reggae and dub remade the studio itself. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer took the message of Rastafari to every continent alongside the harmonies of the Abyssinians, Culture and the Congos, the horn-driven prophecies of Burning Spear and Max Romeo, and the lovers rock and roots voices of Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Marcia Griffiths, Sugar Minott, Junior Murvin, Barrington Levy, Ini Kamoze and Black Uhuru. At the mixing desk King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry at the Black Ark and Scientist stripped songs down to bass and echo, while Augustus Pablo played the melodica and Big Youth, Sister Nancy, Eek-A-Mouse and Yellowman turned the sound-system microphone into the art of the deejay. From the digital turn of the eighties and nineties on, Shabba Ranks, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Sizzla and Capleton drove dancehall and conscious revival, followed in the 2000s and since by Sean Paul, Damian Marley, Vybz Kartel, Gyptian, Protoje, Chronixx, Popcaan, Spice, Koffee and Shenseea.

The list gathers 55 records from 1957 to 2022, one or two by each artist; the rural mento bands, kumina and Nyabinghi drumming, and the thousands of seven-inch singles that never appeared on an LP would each need a list of their own. About 44 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Reggae 95%Folk & Country 1%Pop 1%Other 3%
  • Reggae 95%
  • Folk & Country 1%
  • Pop 1%
  • Other 3%

The genres named most: reggae, dancehall, roots reggae, rocksteady, dub, ska.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Jamaica 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.