We all know reggae, but only a few people know the history behind this genre and who are the exponents of this current. Let’s begin saying that this genre was born at the end of the sixties in a particular country, Jamaica. Soon it became famous and recognized all over the world, in fact this music was transported in countries like England or even in the States especially because of the huge quantities of “foreigners” and immigrants communities that lived there. It is a popular music, but most of the times the songs insofar simple, always try to transmit an important and deep “message”, not by chance it is defined by lot of people this music “the voice of the oppressed”.
Reggae is usually based on a easy rhythm, and the most common instruments used are:
The electric guitar
A bass: that is essential to keep the rhythm
A voice
And sometimes also a plain stick, that is a very particular instrument that it’s hard to find in other genres.
Like I said before this genre was born around the end of the 1960, but if we want to be precise we can say that the creating process of this type of music started in 1962, this because that year Jamaica conquered its independence from Great Britain, and the music that accompanied these facts was a mix between the modern Reggae and the Ska (we can define it a Jamaican Blues).
The most common topic was the Economic Injustice, that like we can imagine, in that period was a really important issue for the black community. So people like Lee Perry, Peter Tosh or Bob Marley (that I think is the most important Reggae artist of all time) with their music tried to side the rights of all those people who were discriminated only because of their color.
Another important topic that I would like to talk about is the “Rastafarian movement” that was a political and religious movement that let’s say it is a mix between Protestant Christianity and Mysticism. But why am I talking about this? Because Rastafarian was the only “Political” movement that sustained Reggae.
This movement was born a few years before Reggae, in particular around 1930 and all the people that joined this “religion” thought that the oppression that they were living every day was just a method that god used to test them. Another important feature that this movement brought all over the world and is associated to this kind of music is the “rasta” hair that is a particular hairstyle that was brought by the warrior Selassie’ that is a sort of Messiah.
We can find this typical hairstyle in lot of old photos and also the most important singers brought it, an example is Bob Marley (In the photo at the beginning of the article you can see him)
This was a real quick explanation of the history of this genre. Maybe right now if we speak about reggae is considered like old music, but in my opinion if you never heard about this type of music it is worth it to go listen to a few songs

Sources
https://www.britannica.com/art/reggae