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  HE
FORERUNNER of our popular music is mento, which was born out
of rural communities. And with the growth of the industrial
sector, people moved to urban areas, taking their music with
them. While the mento rhythms found favour within the tourist
sector, people in the inner-city communities considered it
irrelevant to their cultural expression and lifestyle.
Instead
they developed the sound system culture as an alternative
music form. This was also used as a means of communicating
commentaries on social and political conditions. The next
move was for big sound operators to begin manufacturing their
own sets which they used at dancehall sessions.
Rythm
and Blues
Co-existing
alongside the sound system at that time was the American Rhythm
and Blues, with its shuffling rhythm. Clement Dodd's Sir Coxsone's
Downbeat and Duke Reid's Treasure Isle systems, Jamaica's
two foremost sounds at that time, came into being and fought
for exclusivity. The dance halls became the main routes for
sensitising people to that music form.
This
led to the Jamaican music assuming a new uptempo beat which
came to be known as ska, created within a 12-bar R&B framework
with accent on the second and fourth beats, with a syncopatic
after beat provided by the piano or guitar.
The
'session men' such as Don Drummond and Eric Dean came on the
scene with their vast experience in Latin American and other
Caribbean beats and popularised the music by holding frequent
dancehall sessions. Out of this synergy the famed Skatalites
band was formed.
Meanwhile,
the group got competition from the likes of Rico Rodriques
and Baba Brooks and, in the mid-60s, the Skatalites band was
dissolved. Stage shows became an entertainment feature and
the recording industry blossomed with the establishment of
radio stations and the mushrooming of nightclubs.
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