The Best Jamaican Music Instrumentals

Looking for the best Jamaican music instrumentals? Look no further than our top picks. From classics to contemporary hits, these tunes will get your toes tapping.

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, “Do the Reggay” was the first popular song to use the word “reggae”, effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is strongly influenced by traditional mento as well as American jazz and rhythm and blues, especially New Orleans R&B.

Reggae typically relates news, social gossip, and political commentary through musical stories called ‘dances’. One notable characteristic of reggae is the focus on musical groups called sound systems. These are mobile disc jockeys who play recorded music through mobile sound systems. The sound system concept helped spark both a DJ culture and feelings of African unity among people from sometimes-related ethno-linguistic groups living in close proximity but divided by colonialism.

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. Two of the biggest stars of the early dancehall era were Yellowman and Eek-a-Mouse. As the 1980s progressed, dancehall became more influenced by hip hop. This led to more fast-paced tracks such as Cobra’s “Nuh Linga” (1983) and Cutty Ranks’ “A Who Seh Me Dun” (1988).

Mento

Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, drums, and percussion instruments, as well as harmonic singing and call-and-response vocals. The lyrics of mento songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in Jamaica, including love, marriage, poverty, seaworkers’ lives, and religious beliefs.

Ska

Ska is a genre of music that was developed in Jamaica in the late 1950s. It is a style of music that combines elements of Caribbean music, African music, and American jazz. Ska is characterized by a fast tempo, offbeat rhythms, and horn-based melodies. The genre was popularized in the United Kingdom in the 1960s by bands such as The Specials and Madness.

Rocksteady

Rocksteady is a style of Jamaican music which developed around 1966. Rocksteady was the direct predecessor of reggae; the word “rocksteady” is a reference to the swaying rhythm that was a notable characteristic of the style. It originated from ska, and differed from its predecessor by having slower rhythms, soilter horn arrangements, and an overall more laid-back feel.

The original rocksteady sound was created by Studio One producer Coxsone Dodd, and was featured on many of the label’s early hits. Rocksteady’s popularity lasted until around 1968, when it began to be replaced by the more up-tempo and politicized reggae. By 1970 rocksteady had completely ceased to be a viable commercial genre in Jamaica, though it continued sporadically in Jamaica well into the 1970s as an underground music form.