Jamaican music encompasses a wide range of styles such as ska, rocksteady, dancehall and reggae. Many of these styles influenced one another and can trace their origins back to a combination of African and European musical traditions. Another decisive influence on the evolution of these styles was the mutable popular music tradition of the United States.

Jamaican Folk Music
Much Jamaican folk music can be traced to West African musical traditions such as kumina and tambo as well European nursery songs and folk melodies. The language sung in such songs is Jamaican creole, which was a mixture of African languages and the English language. One form of Jamaican folk music, mento, uses acoustic instruments such as guitar, banjo and hand drums. This form arose in the early 20th century and would later heavily influence ska.

Carribean
Another influence on ska (as well as on reggae and dub) was Trinidadian calypso music, which was popular in the Caribbean in the 1920s. This music likewise blended West African rhythmic patterns with European folk melodies. After World War II, more Caribbean musical forms, such as the steel pan music of Trinidad and Tobago, became popular in Jamaica. In the first few decades after the war, Jamaican musicians began combining steel-pan and calypso with the indigenous mento folk music.

R&B and Jazz
U.S. soldiers stationed on Jamaica after the end of World War II would listen to the popular radio hits of the day, which included R&B and jazz music. Jamaicans who had bought radios during this time had access to New Orleans radio stations, which played songs by musicians such Fats Domino, Jelly Roll Morton and Professor Longhair. When Jamaican artists combined folk music with the sounds they were hearing, ska was born.

Rock n' Roll
According to Bob Marley, rocksteady, another Jamaican musical form, emerged after Jamaican musicians heard James Brown and other funk musicians from the sixties. Rocksteady slowed down the rhythm and featured a distinctive guitar riff. From this musical formula the music we refer to as reggae evolved in the late sixties. As reggae gained an international audience in the following decades, it became synonymous with all Jamaican popular music.