reggae music

Reggae is the most internationally famous style of Caribbean music. Reggae, which is one of the world’s most influential music, was originated in Jamaica around the mid 1960’s. At first reggae was first performed by and for poor Jamaican’s, but quickly became popular throughout the Caribbean and around the world. Most reggae songs deal with social concerns and religious beliefs of the Afro-Caribbean awareness of the Rastafarian religion. The term reggae is also applied today to reggae’s precursor styles, including mento, ska, and rock steady. (World Book encyclopedia, 2000)

The origins of reggae can be traced to the 1940s and the emergence of mento, a hybrid that combines African folk-music traditions with calypso, the carnival music of Trinidad. Mento features rhythmic, syncopated guitar strumming and lively, topical lyrics. By the 1950s the music began to change. Jamaican musicians began to experiment with drum and bass patterns, inspired by the rhythm-and-blues music being broadcast by radio stations in the United States. By the 1960s mento had evolved into an upbeat style of dance music known as ska.

Ska is one of the most the most underrated forms of historical music to date. Many people have not even heard of the word before and if so don’t know anything to a large extent. Ska is an upbeat style of Jamaican pop music. Ska developed in Jamaica from rhythm-and-blues music and mento, it combined mento and calypso with the rhythm and blues then mixed in the “boogie woogie” swing vibe with some jazz. So when it was first started in the 1950’s people of all countries could appreciate and enjoy listening to it as it encompassed their music somewhat with a twist to it. Some notable artists in this field were Don Drummond and the Eric Deans Orchestra. They drew from American artists like Duke Ellington and Glen Miller. This was popular in the time of the swing dance, so when people would go out and ska music would go on they would find their partner and do the “ska” which was also a very popular dance.

By the mid 1960”s ska had slowly began to change into a more mellow style called rock steady. Rock steady was different from Ska in that the sparse rhythms of rock steady allowed the vocalist to play a greater role and encouraged the formation of a number of Jamaican pop vocal groups. Soon rock steady was combined with traditional mento rhythms to produce regg...

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...a good time. Dancehall has taken Jamaican music one-step further than where Bob Marley and other musicians took it. The raw and explicit style of today’s reggae music has gained more international popularity, which is been resulted in Grammy Awards. The raw DJ style of performer Shabba Ranks resulted in consecutive Grammy Awards for him in 1991 and 1992. Dancehall has continued to grow over the years and is now not only the predominant form of music in Jamaica and the Caribbean but also is a major style of music in North American culture.

In conclusion, all forms of Jamaican music are known as reggae, weather its ska, mento, or dancehall it’s all called reggae because it’s all originated in Jamaica. Jamaican music has grown tremendously over the years and will continue to grow as time goes on. Although the soulful melodies of Bob Marley and other original reggae artist is slowly fading, the up tempo style of today’s dancehall artists; such as Sean Paul, Beenie Man and Shaggy is generating more popularity over the world has taken the music to a new level. As a native of Jamaica I am happy to see what they have done not only for the music but what they have done for the country.