Rocksteady - The Roots Of Reggae

The documentary film Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae is a musical journey to Jamaica's Golden Age of music, Rocksteady. The film features the music and stories of the legendary singers and musicians of the Rocksteady era.

They come together after 40 years to record an album of Rocksteady hits, to perform together again at an All-Stars reunion concert in Kingston, Jamaica, and to tell their story. While everybody has heard the music of Bob Marley, the superstar of Reggae, few people know that it was Rocksteady that developed the buoyant rhythms, prominent bass pulse, soulful vocals and socially conscious lyrics that gave Reggae its power.

This film features a mix of studio recording sessions at Tuff Gong Studios, rarely seen archival footage from the period and interviews with the performers at home or at places on the island that had had profound effects on their music and lives.

In the spirit of Wim Wenders' BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, this lively documentary brings together legendary reggae artists for an exchange of music and memories.

Hopeton Lewis, Stranger Cole, Ken Boothe, and many others trace the genre's roots to the mid-'60s an era when Jamaican ska began to give way to rocksteady and offer insights about the music's cultural and political impact through the ages.