Rock Steady (album)
Rock Steady is the fifth studio album by American rock band No Doubt, released on December 11, 2001 by Interscope Records. The band began writing the album with initial recording sessions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, then traveled to London and Jamaica to work with various performers, songwriters, and producers. Sly & Robbie, The Neptunes, and William Orbit were among the many artists the band collaborated with on the album.
As a result of these collaborations, Rock Steady touches on many musical styles, focusing on dub, synthpop, and dance styles more so than in the past. The band attempted to capture the vibe of Jamaican dancehall music, and experimented with writing songs without its standard instrumentation. Singer Gwen Stefani wrote her lyrics quickly in comparison to previous records, and dealt with topics ranging from partying to ruminations on her relationship with Gavin Rossdale.
Rock Steady received mostly positive reviews from music critics, and it was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards. The album was a commercial comeback for the band, surpassing sales of their previous offering, Return of Saturn, released in 2000. Rock Steady spawned four singles, two of which won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Rolling Stone ranked Rock Steady number 316 on its 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
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 (disambiguation)
Rocksteady is a musical genre, a predecessor of reggae, that was most popular in Jamaica in the 1960s.
Rocksteady or Rock Steady may also refer to:
Music
Albums
Songs
Other uses
Rock Steady (All Saints song)
"Rock Steady" is a song performed by British-Canadian recording girl group All Saints from their third studio album, Studio 1. It was co-written by group member Shaznay Lewis in collaboration with the track's producer Greg Kurstin. The song was released by Parlophone Records on 6 November 2006 on CD, digital, maxi-single and 12" vinyl format. "Rock Steady" was the last official single to be released by the group. All Saints collaborated with Kurstin on a number of songs; six were chosen for the album. "Rock Steady" was released as the first single from it. The song contains prominent 2 Tone, dance-pop, reggae fusion, rocksteady and ska musical characteristics. It is lyrically influenced by feelings of feminism and confidence in reference to the personalities of the group members themselves.
"Rock Steady" received mainly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. On 11 November 2006, the single debuted at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart before reaching a peak of number three the following week. It became All Saints' ninth consecutive top ten hit in the United Kingdom. The single also garnered chart success internationally; peaking within the top ten in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Spain, and the top forty in several other countries.
