Celebrity Link- BACK TO THE ROOTS---FROM MENTO TO REGGAE early 40s-50s

BACK TO THE ROOTS---MENTO  Blueuebeat: FROM MENTO TO REAAGE

1. The Jamaican sound system of the inner-city has become the disco of uptown, at home and abroad, engineering a trans-formation through popular music with a social message.

2. The development of dubbing and dee-­jaying in Jamaica spawned the most compelling popular music in America today, rap and hip hop.

3. Jamaican music has had a greater global impact than the music of any other country proportionate to size.  This is a proud record of worldwide achievement.

 Boogie, rock, rhythm and blues,Ska,boogie, rock, rhythm and blues,Reggae,Dub / Dee - Jay,DancehallAfter World War II, in the late 1940s, Jamaicans had few choices available to them for hearing recorded music. There was a part-time radio station with a call sign ZQI.  It operated for a short  period only each day to broadcast the news. Some music was played. 

1.  Sound-system dances occurred for the first time. Sound systems were sets with overpowering amplifiers, huge speaker boxes and a turntable. The systems played at dances in inner-city yards, meeting halls and street corners;
2. In one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century, the transistor was developed to replace bulky inefficient vacuum  tubes.This electronically reproduced the music. The result was a pocket sized transistor radio which became available for play at home, at work and in between.
3. ZQI was replaced by a fully established radio station, Radio Jamaica and Redifusion (RJR). Redifusion was a cable network of speaker boxes for homes or offices through which music was piped by cable from RJR at affordable rates