Mento
Jamaica's first popular recorded music — acoustic, witty, and rooted in folk tradition.
Mento is the rural and urban folk-popular music that predates ska in Jamaica. Recordings from the 1950s export mento abroad, often marketed as "calypso" for tourist audiences. The style mixes banjo, rumba box, and satirical lyrics drawn from everyday island life.
Note: Exact start dates for mento on record vary; the 1940s–1950s window follows common reference works.
- Acoustic folk-popular form
- Rhumba box and banjo
- Often marketed as calypso overseas
Key artists
12Producers
6Labels
6Riddims
12Listen — albums & songs
12Island Chronicle
8- King Tubby formed his own sound system 'Tubby's Home-Town Hi-Fi' in 1958. It was famed for its high quality and innovati
- Possibly, the first ska single was "Little Sheila" by Laurel Aitken, recorded in 1958.
- Joe Higgs and Roy Wilson's "Oh Manny Oh" (1958) produced by former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga, was one of t
- Laurel Aitken's first recording was 'Roll Jordan Roll' voiced in 1957 for Caribbean Distributing. It sounded similar to
- "My Boy Lollipop" was originally released by Barbie Gaye in late 1956. Millie Small released a cover of the song in Marc
- Harry Belafonte recorded "Day-O" (later changed to "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)") for RCA Victor on this date in 1955.
- In 1954 Ken Khouri started Jamaica's first record label, "Federal Records".
- In 1951 Stanley Motta opened the first Jamaican recording studio on Hanover Street in downtown Kingston where he began t
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