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{{Short description|Style of Jamaican folk music}}
{{About|the Jamaican musical style|the DC Comics character|Mento (character)|the candy|Mentos|Roman people named "Mento"|List of Roman cognomina}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Mento
| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|[[Kaiso]]|[[calypso music|calypso]]|[[Kumina]] music}}
| cultural_origins  = Late 19th century, [[Jamaica]]
| derivatives       = [[Ska]]
| fusiongenres      =
| regional_scenes   =
| local_scenes      =
| other_topics      = 
}}
[[Image:Mento on D and Em64.png|thumb|right|350px|Mento rhythm;<ref>Johnston, Richard (2004). ''How to Play Rhythm Guitar''. p. 72. {{ISBN|0-87930-811-7}}.</ref> {{audio|Mento on D and Em64.mid|Play}}]]
{{Music of Jamaica}}

'''Mento''' is a style of [[Music of Jamaica|Jamaican]] [[folk music]] that predates and has greatly influenced [[ska]] and [[reggae]] music.<ref>{{cite web |title=Orange Hill: Hot Soca |publisher=Amplificado.tv (Providence & St. Andew) |work=Orange Hill: Hot Soca |date=2013 |url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=c04jMqPaElQ |access-date=2014-07-14}}</ref> It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kauppila |first=Paul |date=March–June 2006 |title ='From Memphis to Kingston': An Investigation into the Origin of Jamaican Ska |journal=Social and Economic Studies |volume=55 |issue=1–2 |page=76 |jstor=27866458}}</ref> Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as [[classical guitar|acoustic guitar]], [[banjo]], [[hand drum]]s, and the [[rhumba box]]—a large [[mbira]] in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the [[bass (sound)|bass]] part of the music.

Mento is often confused with [[Calypso music|calypso]], a musical form from [[Trinidad and Tobago]]. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently [[metonym|referred]] to as ''calypso'', ''kalypso'' and ''mento calypso''.<ref name="Shaping" /> Mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques.  As in calypso, mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues.<ref name="Shaping" /> Sexual innuendo is also common.

==History==
Mento draws on musical traditions brought by enslaved [[West Africa]] people.<ref name="Shaping">"[http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130811/ent/ent5.html Shaping Freedom, Finding Unity – The Power Of Music Displayed In Early Mento]", ''[[The Gleaner]]'', 11 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013</ref> Enslaved musicians were often required to play music for their masters and often rewarded for such skills.<ref name="Shaping" /> The Africans created a creole music, incorporating such elements of these traditions, including [[quadrille]], into their own [[folk music]].<ref name="Shaping" /><ref name="Gleaner1407">"[http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140706/ent/ent6.html Mento Purely Home-Grown]", ''[[The Gleaner]]'', 6 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014</ref>

The Jamaican mento style has a long history of conflation with Trinidadian [[calypso music|calypso]]. The lyrics of mento songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in a light-hearted and humorous way. Many comment on poverty, poor housing, and other social issues. Thinly veiled sexual references and [[innuendo]] are also common. Mento can be seen as a precursor of some of the movement motifs and themes dealing with such social issues found in modern [[dancehall]]. It became more popular in the late 1940s, with mento performances becoming a common aspect of dances, parties and other events in Jamaica.<ref name="Gleaner1407" />

The word ''mento'' is of uncertain [[etymology]]; it may be from an [[Languages of Africa|African language]] or [[Cuban Spanish]]; [[Rex Nettleford]] said the term was brought back from [[Cuba]] by Jamaicans returning from work there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajO2s9Q-gPQC&q=mento+etymology+jamaica+cuban|title=Intra-Caribbean Migration: The Caribbean Connection (1898–present).|date=August 17, 2002|publisher=Latin American-Caribbean Centre|via=Google Books}}</ref> Supposedly, it derives from the Spanish verb ''mentar'', "to mention, call out, name", because of the subtle ways that lyrics criticised people (whether fellow blacks, or the whites who were in charge).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eOkKAQAAIAAJ&q=mentar+|title=Rastafarian Music in Contemporary Jamaica: A Study of Socioreligious Music of the Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica|first=Yoshiko S.|last=Nagashima|date=August 17, 1984|publisher=Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RogwAQAAIAAJ&q=mentar+|title=Rock Music Styles: A History|first=Katherine|last=Charlton|date=August 17, 1998|publisher=McGraw Hill|isbn=9780697340559|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Major 1950s mento recording artists include [[Louise Bennett]], [[Count Lasher]], [[Count Owen]], [[Harold Richardson (singer)|Harold Richardson]], [[Lord Flea]], [[Lord Fly]], [[Alerth Bedasse]] with [[Chin's Calypso Sextet]], [[Laurel Aitken]], [[Denzil Laing]], [[Lord Composer]], [[Lord Lebby]], [[Lord Power]], [[Hubert Porter]], and [[Harry Belafonte]], a New Yorker of Jamaican origin. His wildly popular hit records in 1956–1958, including "[[Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)]]" and "[[Jamaica Farewell]]", were mento songs sold as calypso. Previously recorded Jamaican versions of many Belafonte's classic "calypso" hits can be heard on the ''Jamaica – Mento 1951–1958'' CD released by Frémeaux & Associés in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=5362&product_id=1176&category_id=128 |title=Frémeaux & Associés éditeur, La Librairie Sonore |publisher=Fremeaux.com |date=1932-06-19 |access-date=2012-07-24}}</ref>

Due in part to Belafonte's popularity, mento became widely conflated with calypso in the 1950s. In a 1957 interview for ''Calypso Star'' magazine, [[Lord Flea]] said:

<blockquote>In Jamaica, we call our music 'mento' until very recently. Today, 'calypso' is beginning to be used for [[metonym|all kinds of West Indian music]]. This is because it's become so commercialized there. Some people like to think of West Indians as carefree natives who work and sing and play and laugh their lives away. But this isn't so. Most of the people there are hard working folks, and many of them are smart business men. If the tourists want 'calypso', that's what we sell them.<ref>{{cite web|author=Michael Garnice|date=11 March 2012|access-date=15 April 2013|url=http://www.mentomusic.com/flea.htm|title=Mento Music Lord Flea}}</ref></blockquote>

This was the golden age of mento, as records pressed by [[Stanley Motta]], [[Ivan Chin]], [[Ken Khouri]] and others brought the music to a new audience. In the 1960s it became overshadowed by [[ska]] and reggae. Mento is still played in Jamaica, especially in areas frequented by tourists. [[Lloyd Bradley]], reggae historian and author of the seminal reggae book, ''Bass Culture'', said that [[Lee "Scratch" Perry]]'s seminal 1976 [[Dub music|dub]] album, ''[[Super Ape]]'', contained some of the purest mento influences he knew.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/mento-reggaes-forgotten-past |title=Mento: Reggae's Forgotten Past &#124; Clash Music Exclusive Interview |publisher=Clashmusic.com |date=2010-07-21 |access-date=2012-07-24}}</ref> This style of music was revived in popularity by the [[Jolly Boys]] in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the release of four recordings on [[First Warning Records]]/[[Rykodisc]] and a tour that included the [[United States]].<ref name="Gleaner1407" /> [[Stanley Beckford]] and Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band also revived rural mento in the 2000s. The mento dance is a Jamaican folk-form dance with acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums and rhumba box.

==Selected recordings==
* {{Audio|Blu-Lu-Lup, Mento.ogg|}} ''Blu-Lu-Lup'' – Lord Fly  
* {{Audio|Healin' in the Balmyard, Mento.ogg|}} ''Healin' in the Balmyard'' – Harold Richardson & The Ticklers  
* {{Audio|Me Dog Can`t Bark, Mento.ogg|}} ''Me Dog Can't Bark'' – Monty Reynolds & The Shaw Park Calypso Band  
* {{Audio|Take Her To Jamaica, Mento.ogg|}} ''Take Her to Jamaica'' – Lord Messam & His Calypsonians  
* {{Audio|Gal a Gully, Matilda, Mento.ogg|}} ''Gal a Gully Matilda'' – Lord Composer & The Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra  
* {{Audio|Bargie, Mento.ogg|}} ''Bargie'' – Hubert Porter

==Films==
* 1984: ''Caribbean Crucible''. From ''Repercussions: A Celebration of African-American Music'' series, program 6. Directed by Dennis Marks and Geoffrey Haydon

==Sources==
<references />

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Barrow |first=Steve |author2=Dalton, Peter |title=The Rough Guide to Reggae |orig-year=1997 |edition=Third |date=August 2004 |publisher=Rough Guides, Ltd. |location=[[Strand, London|Strand]], [[London]], [[England]] |isbn=978-1-84353-329-0 |chapter=The Beginnings: Mento to Ska |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoregg00barr }}
* Floyd, Samuel A. Jr. (1999). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052372 "Black Music in the Circum-Caribbean"]. ''American Music'', Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1999), pp.&nbsp;1–38.
* Neely, Daniel (2001). "Long Time Gal! Mento is Back!". ''The Beat'', December 2001, vol. 20, no. 6: 38-42.
* Neely, Daniel (2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080621035801/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/html/20070317T160000-0500_120495_OBS_ONE_OF_MENTO_S_GREAT_VOICES_SILENCED_.asp "One of mento's great voices silenced"]. "Jamaica Observer, March 18, 2007,
* Neely, Daniel (December 2007). "Calling All Singers, Musicians and Speechmakers: Mento Aesthetics and Jamaica's Early Recording Industry". ''Caribbean Quarterly''. Vol. 53, No. 4: Pioneering Icons of Jamaican Popular Music. pp.&nbsp;1–15, 110. {{JSTOR|40654995}}.
* Neely, Daniel (2008). [https://www.proquest.com/docview/304829541 ''"Mento, Jamaica's Original Music": Development, Tourism and the Nationalist Frame'']. Ph.D. diss., New York University. 

==External links==
* [http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=5362&product_id=1176&category_id=128 Jamaica-Mento 1951-1958]—CD booklet online (English version at the bottom of the page)
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090208081243/http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/cla-2.htm Jamaica]}}—In ''Calypso: A World Music'', a site created by Historical Museum of Southern Florida about calypso and mento
* [http://www.mentomusic.com Jamaican Mento Music]—Site created by Michael Garnice (comprehensive information on the history and the musicians who made the music)
* [http://www.mentomusic.com/chins.htm Ivan Chin]—Mento music's pages on mento pioneer Ivan Chin. The Mento dance is a Jamaican folk form dance with the instruments acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums and the rhumba box
* [https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/solid-treat-mento-in-jamaica-ca-1951-57 Solid Treat: Mento in Jamaica ca. 1951–57]—A sampling of mento music originally released on small record labels, restored and collected by Canary Records. 

{{Ska}}
{{Reggae}}
{{Folk music}}
{{Calypso music}}

[[Category:Mento| ]]
[[Category:Folk music genres]]