Before reggae, rock steady, or even ska, mento ruled Jamaica's musical consciousness. Originally a rural folk music, coalesced from African and European influences, mento took on a more modern tenor ...

Reggae music became popular in the late 1960s, when young people were excited about it and gravitated to the new sound. The artists were mainly grass-roots people who used their voices to articulate a ...

In Jamaican music’s immediate family, there are reggae, dancehall, ska, rocksteady, dub and mento and Nyabinghi. Close cousins? That would be hip-hop, reggaeton, EDM and Afrobeats. Learn about all the ...

The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 50th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years. UNLIKE his contemporaries, ...

Mento is the Jamaican dancehall music whose raw, joyous sound and distinctive rhythms eventually gave rise to popular styles like ska, rocksteady and reggae. Mento remains comparatively unknown ...

It originated on a small Carribean island and grew to become a global phenomenon recognised as a cultural institution by UNESCO, the story of reggae's success is closely entwined with the history of ...