Summer Sunset Concert Series

It's time to celebrate summer in beautiful Downtown Culver City! The City is pleased to present a new music series on Thursday evenings beginning on July 27th at 7 PM in Town Plaza at the Culver Steps. The free, family friendly series will run every Thursday evening until August 31st from 7 PM - 9 PM each evening.

Seating is limited and available on a first come first served basis for view of the stage. Small picnic blankets and low back chairs are welcome in designated areas as capacity allows. We invite you to explore our numerous restaurants in and around the Culver Steps! Alcoholic beverages and smoking are not permitted at the concerts.

Jamaican Rocksteady Music was originated in the 1960's, more so nearer to 1966. It is a musical entity which is the successor to Ska and a precursor to Reggae. Rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals, The Heptones and The Paragons. The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rock Steady". Dances performed to Rocksteady are less energetic than the earlier Ska dances. The first international Rocksteady hit was "Hold Me Tight" released in (1968) by the American soul singer Johnny Nash. This hit reached number one in Canada.

Jamaican Rocksteady music uses some of the musical elements of rhythm and blues (R&B), Jazz, Ska, African and Latin American drumming, and other genres. One of the most easily recognizable elements, as in Ska, are offbeat rhythms; staccato chords played by a guitar and piano on the offbeats of the measure. Rocksteady is loved and cherished in the Jamaican community as we as globally. It is a part of the culture as much as any other genre originated from the island of music.

That chording instruments (instruments that play chords) in ska, rocksteady, and reggae often play so infrequently in the bar and play repeated rhythmic patterns led Jamaican musicians to explore simple modal chord progressions. It could be argued that the development of modal jazz in the late 1950s and early 1960s also influenced the choice of Jamaican players to explore simpler modal chord patterns.