Popular music varies between cultures and generations. In the past century, there has been an explosion of popular music styles in the West. Three of them are reggae, punk, and rap. 

     Reggae developed from a kind of Afro-Caribbean music called “mento,” sung and accompanied by guitars and drums. Initiated on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in the 1960s, it spread throughout the world in the 1970s. Some musicians changed “mento” into a music style called “ska” by adding a hesitation beat. Later, other musicians changed “ska” to introduce “reggae.”

      Punk is a style of rock music composed to react against previous forms of rock. Punks felt that rock music no longer represented the counterculture from which it had sprung and had sold out to the mainstream, conventional culture. Through their clothing and hairstyles, punks intended to shock society. The “punk look” included spike hairdos, ripped clothing, body piercing, and jewelry made from objects such as razor blades and safety pins. Their onstage behavior was aggressive and provocative. Punk music is simple, but its message is anti-government, anti-authority, and anti-conformity. 

     Rap, or hip-hop, is a type of dance music in which the performers—rappers—speak in rhythm and rhyme, but not sing. This art originated in Africa, then, transferred to America via Jamaica, where it was known as “toasting.” In America, during the 1970s rap appeared in the discos of New York’s black neighborhoods. It was mainly about dancing, partying, and the romantic adventures of the rappers, but, later, politics became its important theme.