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Facts on Jamaican music styles

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Jamaican music styles are many and varied.  People are often surprised when they learn many of the interesting facts about Jamaica’s music styles.   

Here are some things you may find interesting about Jamaican music styles 

Kumina  

Kumina is the forerunner to all Jamaican music styles.  This is the first original style of music from Jamaica.  Kumina’s main instrument is the drum and many of its characteristics came to Jamaica with the Africans.  It is still vibrant today and features extensively in Jamaica’s cultural celebrations.   

Mento 

Jamaican music styles are always evolving; this can clearly be seen in the elements of Mento (by the way Mento is the great great grandmother to Reggae). As a Jamaican musical style Mento is not very well known outside the corridors of Jamaica. 

Unless you are an avid traveller to Jamaica, you may have missed this one.  Mento fuses African and European elements to create a unique Jamaican music style. 

It’s more popular than Kunima, and like Kumina it features extensively in Jamaica’s yearly cultural expressions.  Do a quick YouTube search to see how Mento is played.  The instruments include the Congo drums, shakers, banjo and other home made instruments. 

Jazz 

Though jazz is not necessarily a unique Jamaican music style, it was nonetheless very popular in the 20s and onward. In fact, it is the precursor to Ska – there would have been no Ska without Jazz, since as a Jamaican style of music Ska borrowed extensively from Jazz. Interesting! 

Ska 

Upon until recently, Ska was the most popular of the Jamaican music styles. Like Reggae, it emphasizes the off beat and that’s what made it different from Jazz. If you slow down the tempo of Ska, interestingly, you get Rocksteady which leads nicely into reggae. Ska still uses the walking bassline which was made popular by jazz. 

Rocksteady 

When the tempo of Ska is slowed down Rocksteady emerges.  As a Jamaican music style Rocksteady is sometimes mistaken for Reggae.  This is understandable because characteristically they are very close.  

Rocksteady is a slow mellow grove and its message is mainly concerned with love (listen to Alton Ellis songs especially Rocksteady). It is sometimes referred to as lover’s rock. Listen to some Rocksteady songs to see if you can tell the difference between this Jamaican music style and Reggae. 

Reggae 

It is said that reggae, as the most popular of Jamaican music styles, was developed as a direct result of using the tape echo at Studio One, which gives the reggae guitar a doubling effect.  

The other Reggae producers weren’t familiar with this sound and in their desperate bit in trying to get the sound, the chuck or chop Reggae guitar technique, was developed. Very interesting! 

The drum beat and the message is what makes Reggae different from Rocksteady and the other Jamaican music styles. There are three distinct drum beats associated with reggae, the one drop, steppers and rockers. Reggae’s message is about peace, love, happiness, spirituality and justice. Its main ambassador was Bob Marley. 

Dancehall 

Few knew, when disk jockeys stated talking over the version side of various songs back in the day to entertain the members of their audience, Dancehall as a Jamaican music style would be the result.  

Believe it or not, this simple technique was the precursor to Hip Hop and started in Jamaican! Very interesting! I suppose one could say that Hip Hop is also a Jamaican music style, but I won’t go that far.  Listen to Sean Paul and Shaggy to become more familiar with Dancehall. That’s it. Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.  For more on Jamaican music styles and reggae music history

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