In the 1950s mento and sound systems became inseparable. Mento was first recorded in the 1950s thanks to the efforts of Baba Stanley Motta and his dance band who noted the similarities between Jamaican mento and the Trinidadian calypso, which was currently finding international audiences. While mento never found a large international audience as calypso it later became the base rhythm of ska, rocky steady and reggae even today. However, some of these recordings of mento was recorded by such mento artists as Count Lasher, Lord Composer and George Moxey, who has become respected legends of Jamaican music. Though it has largely been supplanted by successions of Reggae, Dub and dance hall music. Mento music is still going strong and is being made by classicist performers such as the Jolly Boys. By the middle 50s, Jamaica had transitioned from a rural society into an urban one. The new city dwellers in Kingston and Richmond, for example, were exposed to Americanised R&B, doo wop and rock 'n' roll. Parties gathered around mobile discotethecque type sound systems, which played American hits. One of the very first these mobile discotethecque was Tom The Great Sebastian, The V-Rocket Some of the major figures of the Jamaican music scene came to the fore in association with the mobile discotethecque sound systems during this period. Then other sounds like Duke Reid The Trojan and Coxsone Downbeat follow suite. |
