Perhaps reggae first comes to mind when people think of Jamaica. Reggae, a distinctively syncopated style of Jamaican music, is highly political. Emerging from traditional indigenous Jamaican music with African and Black American roots, Reggae was popularized in the 20th century by Bob Marley and others. It was a pervasive influence on rock music in the 1980s, especially in Britain. For his cultural contributions, Marley received Jamaica's third highest national honor -- the Order of Merit -- and was posthumously enshrined in the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the late 1990s.
Jamaica's folk music is said to have its origin in West Africa. The drum is central to all Jamaican music having ties to Africa. Many village bands use maracas, mbiras (and a bass mbira called a "rhumba box"), graters (cheese graters scraped with a nail), triangles, and glass bottles (struck with a stone or any hard object). Some groups also use a bamboo stick beaten with two other sticks and a machete struck with a metal beater. "Mento" is Jamaica's own original style of songs, instrumental music, and dancing.
