CULTURE
Jamaica has a wide range of food.
Most of it features exotic spices and tropical friuts and vegtables,
due to its location.
Some delicacies include Mannish water, a soup claimed to cure
infertility, impotence and even the common cold; cowcod soup
is a soup made from bananas, yams, rum, and "cowocd" (a
jamaican secret!), and jerk chicken, which is chicken marinated
in spices and then fried. It's not for the faint of tongue! They
also eat ackee ( salted fish) and fried plantains, among other
things.
Jamaican Music
One of the most famous cultural aspects of Jamaica is the music.
Reggae evolved from a form of music know as dance hall. Dancehall
was originaly DJs who went around in trucks and played current
American music. From this, Dancehall evolved into Ska. This was
a very energetic music with trumpets and other horns. Ska has
had three waves of popularity. The first wave was the original
ska in the mid-sixties. Ska was formed when Buster Prince, the
pioneer of ska, asked his quitarist to empahsize the upstroke
rather than the downstroke. This wave was known as bluebeat bacause
most Ska bands were on the label Blue Beat. While this type of
ska was forming, another type of music, know as Rocksteady, (due
to its which had a slow steady beat) was also forming from the
same roots. The first wave of ska slowly died out and by the
1970's the next wave of ska, two-tone was here.made Two Tone
was the Ska record label of the '70's, again the the wave getting
the name from themusic label. Two Tone (the label, and therefore
the music) got its name from the black and white checked pattern,
the ska bands of the time used. Te pattern symbolized racial
harmony which came from the fact that most second wave ska bands
were interracial. This wave was short lived and pretty much died
out by the late Seventies. When this wave died out Buck Hingley
can to NYC from England and here formed the Toasters The third
(current) wave of ska is credited to the Toatsters, who formed
the current Ska scene in New York City. Much of the third wave
ska is a combination of ska, punk and hardcore, usually known
as ska-core. Reggae evolved from Rocksteady, which evolved from
the end of the first wave of ska. Bob MArley, the most prolific
reggae artist, was
