The first major account of the history of reggae, black music journalist Lloyd Bradley describes its origins and development in Jamaica, from ska to rock-steady to dub and then to reggae itself, a local music which conquered the world. There are many extraordinary stories about characters like Prince Buster, King Tubby and Bob Marley. But this is more than a book of music history: it relates the story of reggae to the whole history of Jamaica, from colonial island to troubled independence, and Jamaicans, from Kingston to London.

Lloyd Bradley is tied to reggae as more than a fan or journalist. In the ’70s, he was the operator of the Dark Star Sound System in London, a past that gives him unique insight into the minds of the musicians, DJs, fans, and industry people who made reggae happen. This Is Reggae Music (titled Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King outside the U.S.) is Bradley’s deep history of Jamaican popular music, from its roots in mento, calypso, and the R&B-pumping sound systems of Kingston, through ska, rocksteady, roots, dub and dancehall. He tells it with a fan’s enthusiasm and critical ear, balancing his narrative with interviews with some of the music’s pivotal figures.

The history of reggae is intertwined with the modern history of Jamaica and its expatriate diaspora, and Bradley steps back from the music when he needs to, placing it in the context of Jamaican independence and the country’s steep ups and downs since then. London’s large expatriate community hovers just out of the center of the narrative, and Bradley effectively wields his personal understanding of the back-and-forth between it and the home island. His account of the rise of Rastafarianism from the persecuted margins of Jamaican society to the center of roots music is one of the finest short histories of the movement available. Even Bradley’s attempts to transcribe the patois of his interview subjects work.

It’s also difficult to think of a book that better places Bob Marley in the context of reggae as an evolving musical form. Bradley devotes a whole brilliant chapter to unpacking Marley’s musical, cultural, and societal legacies, explaining clearly how each is different. It’s a sweeping history that captures the feel of the times it documents well, and a bit of the feel of the music, too. –Joe Tangari