Reggae?

a friend asked me today what it takes to "make that reggae sound" .. i know jammin by marley, and april 29 by sublime, but all i could really tell him was that they used weird chord shapes and that it was mainly the work of upstrokes.

but can that be it?

could anyone here give me a bit of advice? what chords(chord types) should i learn, and what scales are good with reggae?

thanks!

ska and reggae are sort of alike, sort of, try the whole string percussive thing, and learn to play on the off beat real well, by striking down on the chord but muting the strings (on the 'on' beat) and playing the chord on the up strum (on the 'off' beat), try 7th chords, and focus playing chords on the 3 treble strings,