Reggae music is a musical genre that developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s and is now popular across the world. The term was first used in a single by Toots and the Maytals called ‘Do the Reggae’ in 1968.

Reggae music includes elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, calypso and mento (a type of Jamaican folk music). Reggae songs normally have a characteristic rhythm in 4/4 with repeated offbeat quavers. The lyrics often have political themes, as seen in the songs of Bob Marley. The tempo tends to be slower than ska, a type of Jamaican music that came before reggae.