Composition Musically, Rock Steady incorporates electropop, dancehall, new wave, reggae, and dance-pop. The album maintains many of the styles present in No Doubt's previous work, while introducing influences from the music of Jamaica. "Hey Baby", "Underneath It All" and "Start the Fire" all feature dancehall and ragga, an electronic-oriented subgenre, as well as guest toasters. The latter, written using backward string samples, also contains the band's traditional ska and reggae sounds. Ocasek produced the new wave-influenced tracks "Don't Let Me Down" and "Platinum Blonde Life", the former of which was described as sounding "more like the Cars than the Cars". "Platinum Blonde Life" was so strongly influenced by the Cars' work that Kanal apologized to Ocasek, though Ocasek apologized back that he had not seen the similarity. The synth-pop ballad "Running" was composed on a Yamaha keyboard purchased for Kanal in the 1980s and drew inspiration from the Thompson Twins. Its simple keyboard riff drew comparisons to the work of Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Yazoo.
Composition Musically, Rock Steady incorporates electropop, dancehall, new wave, reggae, and dance-pop The album maintains many of the styles present in No Doubt's previous work, while introducing influences from the music of Jamaica. "Hey Baby", "Underneath It All" and "Start the Fire" all feature dancehall and ragga, an electronic-oriented subgenre, as well as guest toasters. The latter, written using backward string samples, also contains the band's traditional ska and reggae sounds. Ocasek produced the new wave-influenced tracks "Don't Let Me Down" and "Platinum Blonde Life", the former of which was described as sounding "more like the Cars than the Cars". "Platinum Blonde Life" was so strongly influenced by the Cars' work that Kanal apologized to Ocasek, though Ocasek apologized back that he had not seen the similarity. The synth-pop ballad "Running" was composed on a Yamaha keyboard purchased for Kanal in the 1980s and drew inspiration from the Thompson Twins. Its simple keyboard riff drew comparisons to the work of Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Yazoo.