One drop rhythm is a drumset playing style of reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, popularized by Carlton Barrett

Carlton Barrett

Carlton "Carly" Barrett was an influential reggae drummer and percussion player. His musical development in the early years were with his brother Aston "Family Man" Barrett as a member of Lee "Scratch" Perry's "house band" The Upsetters. The brothers joined Bob Marley and The Wailers around 1970...

, long-time drummer of Bob Marley and the Wailers, created by Winston Grennan

Winston Grennan

Winston Grennan was a Jamaican drummer, famous for session work from 1962 to 1973 in Jamaica as well as later in New York City through the 1970s and '80s.-Career:...

, in which the backbeat

Beat (music)

The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...

 is characterized by the dominant snare drum

Snare drum

The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...

 stroke

Drum stroke

In music, a drum stroke is a note performed on percussion instruments known as a drum. There are four basic strokes.The Full Stroke begins with the tip of the drumstick held 8-12" above the striking surface...

 (usually a click produced by hitting a rimshot) and bass drum

Bass drum

Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...

both sounding on the third beat of every measure in 4/8 time (counting in 4/4 time, the drummer would leave beats one and three open), while beat one is left empty. Thus, the expected hit on beat one is "dropped," creating the one-drop effect. A good example for this drum beat is Bob Marley & The Wailers' song "Running Away".