Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a style of Jamaican popular music blending blues, calypso, and rock-‘n’-roll, characterized by a strong syncopated rhythm and lyrics of social protest.
noun
- a type of West Indian popular music having four beats to the bar, the upbeat being strongly accented
1968, Jamaican English (first in song title “Do the Reggay” by Toots & the Maytals), perhaps [OED, Barnhart] related to rege-rege “a quarrel, protest,” literally “ragged clothes,” variant of raga-raga, alteration and reduplication of English rag (n.).
A form of pop music that originated in Jamaica, combining elements of calypso and rhythm and blues (see blues) with a strongly accentuated offbeat. Bob Marley was the first internationally known reggae musician.