Rocksteady

Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals, The Heptones and The Paragons. The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rock Steady". Dances performed to rocksteady were less energetic than the earlier ska dances. The first international rocksteady hit was "Hold Me Tight" (1968) by the American soul singer Johnny Nash; it reached number one in Canada.

Characteristics

Rocksteady uses some of the musical elements of rhythm and blues (R&B), jazz, ska, African and Latin American drumming, and other genres. One of the most easily recognizable elements, as in ska, are offbeat rhythms; staccato chords played by a guitar and piano on the offbeats of the measure. This offbeat can be counted so that it falls between each count as an "and". Example: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. The perceived tempo became slower with the development of rocksteady than it had been in ska and this led to a number of changes in the music. The guitar and piano players began to experiment with occasional accents around the basic offbeat pattern. This can be heard throughout Jamaican recordings in subsequent years.

Rocksteady (Big Head Todd and the Monsters album)

Rocksteady is the ninth studio album from Big Head Todd and The Monsters, released on July 20, 2010. The album's first single, "Beautiful", charted top 20 in Adult album alternative in 2010 and is available on iTunes.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Todd Park Mohr, except "Smokestack Lightning" by Chester Burnett and "Beast of Burden" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. 

References

Bebop and Rocksteady

Bebop and Rocksteady are two fictional characters in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series and the Archie TMNT Adventures comics as well as most of the classic TMNT video games. They follow the orders of series villain The Shredder, leader of the Foot Clan. Their names are both derived from genres of music: bebop is a style of jazz; while rocksteady is a Jamaican music style, a precursor to reggae.

Character creation

The characters were designed by Peter Laird while they were negotiating the action figure deal with Playmates, as they wanted more characters to release. They were added into the show and given names, personalities and an origin story by writer David Wise, based on instructions by Fred Wolf to "put more mutants in the series".

Appearances in media

In animated television

1987 series

Bebop (voiced by Barry Gordon in most appearances, Greg Berg in some 1989 episodes) and Rocksteady (voiced by Cam Clarke) were introduced in the series as part of a human street gang in New York City that was employed by Shredder. Rocksteady was a short and stocky blond Caucasian man (who sported army camouflage pants that would be replaced with simple beige cargo pants later while also occasionally sporting a strong Army helmet on his head in his mutated form). Bebop was a taller African American man with a purple Mohawk. With the other members of their gang, they were sent out to stop a Channel 6 reporter named April O'Neil from doing a report about crime in the city. April ran down into the sewers while being chased by the street gang and met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who then defeated the gang in a fight.