One cannot look at the Jamaican culture without looking at the music. There are lot of things to do and stories to hear, but expressing the culture through dancing and singing add some unique flavor. The Jamaican music culture and dance highlights the historical and social customs and it plays such an important role in the articulation of the ancestral heritage. Throughout the centuries to present time, the music acts as a medium through which people can express their sorrows, joys, tragedies and triumphs in inventive and creative ways.

The traditional Jamaica music culture features strong substances of the experiences, independence and struggles of the people. The music was always used as a medium to rebel against the system of government, praise god, love and communication. This folk form can be characterized as dance music, religious tunes and for entertainment and work. The similarities with these categories are the string and wind instruments and the drums, but they have their own melodies.

The music form that was used for entertainment and work can be traced back to the slavery days. While the slaves were working in the fields, the songs were use to gossip and pass messages to each other, this helped them to ease the burdens they were facing with hard labor. The slaves use to do the call and response songs mainly because majority of the slaves could not read and this helped everyone to participate.

The music was also an integral part of the religious groups and were also influenced with the diverse mix of African and European cultures. This could be seen in the various public outbursts of faith and the vast amount of religious ceremonies that are held frequently across the island. The Rastafari, Kumina and the pocomania were the major forms. The Rastafarians music could be recognised by the chanting and drumming and the pocomania and kumina could mostly be found in the revivalist organisations with the use of drums, shakers and tambourines. The revival ceremonies are held all night with lots of thumping, profound rhythmic groaning, singing and musical instruments.

The mento was the first of the original Jamaican music form, with strong influences from the plantation period. This was born from the combination of the British and African influences. The African elements that were featured are the call and response singing, performance styles and rhythmic beat. The British features included were harmonic concepts, scale patterns and chorus and verse. The Jamaican mento was sometimes confused with the Trinidadian calypso music.

The mento lyrics were considered humorous and they touched on topics that were considered controversial. The bands that play the mento music could be found in all the rural areas of Jamaica. Today they can be found mostly on the north coast playing at the hotels. One of the popular mento songs that you are likely to hear is the “Peel Head John crow”. One of the dances that accompany this music is quadrille.

The reggae music is a very popular genre that travels from the inner city of Kingston Jamaica to high places all over the world. With of the contributors to the music reaching such heights is the singer Bob Marley. This music is said to be the heartbeat of the Jamaican people and features passionate, contagious and thumping sounds. This reggae is pure Jamaican, but similar to other genres of music in Jamaica, it can be traced back to the African culture.