In the 1950s mento and sound systems became inseparable. Mento music was first recorded during the 1950s thanks to the efforts of Baba Stanley Motta and his dance band who noted similarities between Jamaican mento music and Trinidadian calypso. Calypso music became an attraction to international audiences. While mento never found a large amount of international audience as calypso. However, in later years mento became the base rhythm for the ska, rocky steady reggae and ragga and the trend still continues 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, dancehall music beat! | Mobile Discotethecques 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 and B, doo wop and rock 'n' roll. Parties gathered around mobile discotethecque sound systems, which played American hits. The very first mobile discotethecques were Tom the Great Sebastian, and V-Rocket. Some of the major figures of the Jamaican music scene came to the fore in association with mobile discotethecque sound systems during this period. Then other sounds like Duke Reid The Trojan and Coxsone Downbeat follow suite! |
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