Music of Jamaica

Jamaica had a great influence on the world’s music over the past few years. Whereas, everyone is familiar with Jamaica’s Reggae, the other musical styles credited to Jamaica include mento, ska, rocksteady, and dancehall. Jamaica's influence is very much present on pop music charts from around the world. For instance, reggae is very popular in Africa. Artists from around the world have created their own brand of reggae based on the Jamaica’s original article. Jamaican music shows African and European musical elements. African musical elements have formed the basis of Jamaican music. A man named Walter Jekyl (1904) was the first Jamaican folklorist to collect and categorized folk songs. His book "Jamaican Song and Story" is available on google books.

By 1940s, Mento music came as a unique style of Jamaican music. In the early 1960s, ska music took shape. Ska combined traditional mento with elements of American R&B and boogie-woogie rock music, which was immensely popular in Jamaica at the time. Then came the Rocksteady, which was short lived and quickly evolved into reggae music. Reggae emerged in late 60s and went on to become the most hit genre of Jamaican music. Famous artists in reggae music include Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Lee "Scratch" Perry. Dancehall, a modernized form of reggae emerged in 1970s.