The mento is the Musique jamaïcaine until the Années 1950, derived from the Calypso of the Trinidad with a rate/rhythm swing moreover. It preceded the Ska and the Reggae appeared with industrialization. Of rural origin, it is characterized by the use of instruments like the banjo, the rhumba box or thumb piano, the guitar, the maracas and sometimes the violin, the piano or the saxophone bamboo. The topics frequently approached by the mento are the critics of the social life and policy, of the texts melancholic persons related to the cultural and human uprooting, of the adaptations of " work songs" , and of the texts with licentious connotations.

Artist

• Count Owen
• The Folkes Brothers
• Stanley Beckford

Notes and references of the article