In late 1968, the Maytals gave a name for a type of music that had started to come up from the underground during rocksteadys final days. Their record was called "Do The Reggay" and it featuring the fast type of rhythm feauting prominent bass and bubbling organ and quick drum taps was was used earlier for Larry and Alvins tune "Nanny Goat" (a Studio One production). So it was named reggae it it became on the lips of every Jamaican music fan worldwide (or at least as far as England and certian parts of New York).

Studio One at Brentford Road became an immediate supplier of reggae from the beginning, the Larry and Alvin tune above being just one example. It seemed that the studio musicans at the studio, Coxsone, and his young stable of singers had come across a sound they had been waiting for since its inception. Still using brilliant talents like the leaders Jackie Mittoo and Leory Sibbles (organ and bass respectively), the session group also included people like Eric Frater (guitar), Bunny Williams (drums), Roland Alphonso, Headly Bennett and Cedric Im Brooks (saxes) and sometimes master guitarist Ernest Ranglin would join in. They recorded under many names, usually Sound Dimension, and recorded some of the most popular rhythms to ever be recorded in Jamaica. "Full Up", "Real Rock", Mojo Rocksteady", "Rockfort Rock", "Swing Easy", etc. are all staples of the current dancehall that is shaking things up in Jamaica these days.

Sound Dimension also provided the musical backing for some of Studio Ones veteren singers like The Heptones ("Choice of Colour", "Pretty Looks Isn't All", "Sea Of Love"), Alton Ellis (the entire "Sunday Coming" album), post-Paragons singer John Holt ("A Love I Can Feel") as well as newcomers like Burning Spear, The Wailing Souls, and Horace Andys massive hits like "See A Mans Face", "Skylarking" and "Mr. Bassie" (the latter a tribute to Leroy Sibbles who taught some bass to Horace when he first started coming around). Instrumental-wise, The Sound Dimension released hit after hit as well as works fronted by Roland Alphonso ("King Sax"), Cedric Brooks ("Im Flash Forward"), and Ernest Ranglin (the massive song "Surfin" and the "Sounds and Power" album).

The freshness of the sound and the heavyness the musicians added to it, mad Studio One reggae the classic sound of the that particular era. It left a dwindling Duke Reid in the dust and Prince Buster in the shadows of his previous glories.

But it wasnt these two old time competetors Dodd had to face this time. Now there was a threat all around with the coming of newer, younger producers like Lee "Scratch" Perry (Dodds former recording partner from the ska days), Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee, Clancy Eccles and so many more who seemed to have more ideas and were willing to lead the music into the new decade.

The 1970's seemed a relatively quiet time at Brentford Road. Dodd had closed operations and moved to the USA to open his "Coxsone's Music City" record shop and recording studio in Brooklyn, NY. Studio One was still heard in the sound systems though. A new studio had opened in the mid 70's called Channel One which specialised in rockers and steppers roots reggae rhythms, many times recreating classic vintage Studio One rhythms to sound more up to date.

Studio One wasnt completely quiet though. With the advent of dub (engineers art of remixing reggae tracks with added echo, reverb and whatever other sound effects an engineer could get ahold of), Dodd showed off he could mix. And with his vault of classic rhythms, his Dub Specialist series of 12 dub albums are pretty hot. Though Dodd isnt as adventures at the mix as King Tubby or Errol Thompson, the rhythms alone are what make these dub records worth checking out.