The backing singers step out front

Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's studio and label at 13 Brentford Road, Kingston — the closest thing Jamaican music has to a foundation. From 1963 onward it moved through ska, rocksteady and early reggae, and the rhythms cut in its rooms became the raw material for everything after: the Studio One catalogue is versioned, toasted over and sampled to this day, and a working knowledge of it is effectively a working knowledge of the music. Its house bands (the Skatalites, later Sound Dimension) and its roll of first recordings — The Wailers, Alton Ellis, Burning Spear, Dennis Brown, Marcia Griffiths, Horace Andy and many more — make it the single most connected node in this archive. Officially the Jamaican Recording and Publishing Studio, it was built out of a former nightclub at 13 Brentford Road in Cross Roads, which Dodd acquired in 1962 and converted with his father's help — the first Black-owned recording studio in Jamaica. The address served as studio, label headquarters and shopfront at once, which is what earned it the "Motown of Jamaica" comparison. Days before Dodd's death in May 2004 the Jamaican government renamed Brentford Road as Studio One Boulevard.

Jamaican singer and prolific session harmony vocalist known for the lovers ballad "Dear Boopsie" and for backing vocals across countless reggae sessions.

Johnny Osbourne bridged Studio One-era roots singing and early dancehall, with "Buddy Bye" among the landmark recordings that helped define digital dancehall's vocal style; Stone Love Movement's dubplate catalogue features his voice among the artists the sound system helped establish.

Jamaican singer known as "Mr Fix It," born in Kingston in 1943, who recorded his debut album Mr. Fix-It for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One in 1969, followed by California Dreaming (1970), before later finding renewed success in France with a version of "Stand By Me.".

Kingston-born singer (b. c.1948) who first recorded as half of the duo Dandy & Audrey with Dandy Livingstone in 1969, spent much of the 1970s and early '80s as a backing vocalist alongside her sister Pam Hall, and returned as a solo hitmaker in 1986 with "Smile" and "One Dance Won't Do," both produced by Donovan Germain for Penthouse.

Cherine Tanya Anderson, born 1984 in Rockfort, East Kingston, a child actress in the film Dancehall Queen (1997) who grew into a dancehall and reggae vocalist; her 2006 duet with Chuck Fenda, "Coming Over," topped the Jamaican charts and reached six Billboard charts, and she has recorded and toured with Sly & Robbie and Jimmy Cliff.

Jamaican vocal group formed in 1967 whose rotating membership included Cornell Campbell, Johnny Osbourne and Jimmy Riley; their 1969 single "Just One Smile" and 1967 version of the Impressions' "People Get Ready" have been widely anthologised on rocksteady-era compilations.

Jamaican singer with a distinctive high tenor, active from the ska era through rocksteady and roots - recording for Studio One and, as "the Gorgon," for Bunny Lee - and among the many voices who cut versions of Treasure Isle's "You Don't Care" rhythm.

The Melodians were a rocksteady vocal group formed in Kingston's Greenwich Town area in 1963 by Tony Brevett, Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton. Recording for producers including Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid and Leslie Kong, they are best known for "Sweet Sensation" and "Rivers of Babylon," the latter adapted from Psalm 137 and later a global hit via the film The Harder They Come and Boney M's cover. Lead singer Brent Dowe (1946–2006) co-wrote several of the group's signature songs.