Like American jazz, ska was usually instrumental. By 1966, ska would itself evolve into another type of music, rocksteady. In contrast to ska, rocksteady was mellower and had more sparse rhythms. This allowed the singer to play a greater role in the music. Soon, rocksteady combined with traditional mento rhythms to form a new kind of music, called reggae.
Reggae music is very much an inversion of traditional rock music.
In reggae, the guitar often takes much of the rhythmic emphasis, often playing chords on the offbeat, while the bass takes many of the melody lines. During the 1970s, producers such as Lee Perry and King Tubby were reinventing the sound of reggae. These men used echo and delay effects to create a sound known as dub. DJs began to talk, rather than sing over these dub songs, creating a technique known as toasting. Dub and Toasting were later transplanted to New York City, where they formed the basis for hip-hop and rap in the 1980s.