I'm a avid rocksteady listener. Visited many old ska, rocksteady and roots festivals and concerts. I love the old stuff.
But it is ignorant and dismissive to place anything after an arbitrary date under the label "not decent". Plenty of wonderful stuff.
I'm certain you'll agree that for example Lee Scratch Perry produced wonderful music until the day of his death (August 2021). What he did with The Upsetters is magic. But even the albums he made in the months before his death are far more than "decent".
I'm sure there's a million other reggae artists that I've yet to discover, but nothing personally hits more than roots reggae, I wish there were more of 1970s-1990s Lacksley Castell, Hugh Mundell, Johnny Osbourne, Barrington Levy, Sammie Dread, Johnnie Clark, etc, etc,
Going to listen to some you mentioned I don't know...
Just from the top of my head in case some here don't know them (if I start looking in my archive I'll find lots of stuff)... Not all "roots" but it's old stuff.
Zap Pow, "This is Reggae music": (I used to start my reggae compilation with this one)
Delroy Wilson, Cornell Campbell, Don Carlos, Carlton & The Shoes, Garnett Silk, Bob Andy, Freddie McGregor, Frankie Paul... Personally I prefer the sound of the late 60s — Rocksteady: The Paragons, Lynn Taitt, Prince Buster, Alton Ellis, Phyllis Dillon, Bob & the Beltones, The Progressions...
Roots reggae was the only music I played my baby was in the hospital. So much so, I actually created a Spotify playlist of all of the songs we jammed together to.
You've got a nice playlist there. #63 - If I Could Rule This World is one of my all time favorites.
Most of the Soul Jazz Records samplers are on Spotify, well worth a listen. Unfortunately Spotify is missing many of the older/rarer tunes. There are some collectors who record their 45s and upload to Youtube:
Not heard of Zap Pow! Checking them out now. I just replied to a post below, but I'll do it here too, I created a Spotify playlist of roots reggae I played to my lil girl while she was in the hospital.
Presumably plenty of Jamaicans (and others) would disagree, but I do personally like the sound of the 70s recordings best, especially the dubs, The Revolutionaries, Roots Radics, etc. Newer reggae has a lot of newer pop in it, auto-tune, plastic-y production.
It was never meant to stay the same, the old riddim culture went on for a long period without change... New dancehall is a bit too soft for me as well, I like ragga most, but I do miss the classic "red light" love song era... I'm working to remix some of the classics myself, and to create new vibes (without using auto tune).
There are many artists working low key on different sounds, but right now the industry is pushing the bubble-gum-gangster sound that is most popular right now... You've got to search real deep on YouTube for the best stuff.
I like the sound of those records too. I kinda wonder how much of it was the access to gear they had, I know lots of sound systems were DIY and people like Tubby and Scientist were electrical engineers.
I love the French digital dub scene for one, Pupajim, Panda dub, Dubamix, Mayd Hubb all put out fantastic pieces, like this one for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgjvtib-Xi0
