jamaican music-where to find music in jamaica

Subject: BS: jamaican music
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 06 - 06:53 PM

I am going to Jamaica on Tuesday, could anyone suggest ant good traditional jamaican music , reggae..etc.

Subject: RE: BS: jamaican music
From: kendall
Date: 24 Nov 06 - 07:17 PM

When I was there in 1988 I ran across a group called Ken and the Cane Cutters at a hotel in Montego Bay. Not great musicians, but they were worth seeing.
Whatever you do, don't get sucked into the "Romantic moonlight boat ride up the river". The biggest ripoff ever! The bands wer drunk, acted like they had never played together before, all out of tune, it was pathetic! However, the meal was great, best jerk chicken I ever had.
Dunn's River Falls was worth doing, but everwhere you go there is extreme poverty and one ripoff after another.

Do not travel alone or at night, and if I were you I would avoid Kingston altogether.

Subject: RE: jamaican music
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Nov 06 - 09:47 PM

Guest, my daughter went to a "destination wedding" in Kingston last summer. Two years before that she and a girlfriend went to Montego Bay. She said she had a better time in Montego Bay as the hotel's
entertainment was more authentic.

For instance, my daughter said that the recorded music that the Kingston hotel played in Kingston was American {White} pop songs instead of contemporary Jamaican music and other Caribbean music. And my daughter was disappointed that unlike Montego Bay, the Kingston hotel's organized evening entertainment was quite Americanized {with a quiz game based on USA culture-like who won the world series in 1995, and which recording artist had this or that #1 hit in 2003, and who starred in which 1980s American tv show}.
It seems as though that establishment thought that's what their mostly American guests wanted. Wrong!

As to the types of contemporary Jamaican and other Caribbean music, you may already know Soca and Dancehall Reggae, but some other popular music/dance genres are Chutney Afro-Caribbean music mixed with East Indian music, beats, and lyrics}, and Reggaton {music with the Reggae beat and lyrics sung in Spanish}.

Plus there's instructional uptempo dances-I'm not sure what they're called but the main singer directs folks to do specific moves that he calls out-it's usually a "he". Some moves I recall off the top of my head from a compilation CD that my daughter got from her Montego Bay, Jamaica vacation are "river/bank"; "umbrella"; "hard rain", "lightning"; "helicopter"; and "sponge bob". Doing these dances are a lot of fun!

Btw, I've read that Calypso is reserved more for Carnival times and even then it's not that popular-especially not in Jamaica.

All this to say, Guest, that I hope that you enjoy your trip and have some great -authentic-musical experiences!

Subject: RE: jamaican music
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 09:40 AM

Thanks for all the tips. I have been warned off Kingston by many people and I will take that advice. As for the Americanized music..well, I went into a very small pub in Yorkshire that advertised authentic english folk music and they had bluegrass band from, of all places, Bangot Maine.