This form of expression dates back to centuries in history. Perhaps, the most prominent example of this is during times of slavery. The "dancehall" is a musical meeting place, which can be traced back to slavery era and which has characteristics which are evident in every phase of Jamaican music. "Dancehall has always been with us. because we have always had our dubs, our marketplaces, our booths.where our dances were kept. And these were known as dancehalls.".
African music of Jamaica has been identified with unique sounds. It has been a struggle to differentiate stems more from cultural and racial politics and from the artifact of tones and pulses. This statement is particularly relevant to Jamaica's history of colonial rule and slavery beginning shortly after Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1494.
The island of Jamaica is populated overwhelmingly by West African people of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, and Congolese-Angolan people of central Africa. Minority groups of East Indian, Chinese, and Europeans are also found there. The British treatment of Jamaica as a "plantation colony", beginning with cultivation of sugar in the later half of the 17th century, quickly led to dominant numbers of blacks. In 1800, slaves made up 88% of Jamaica's population. Of course, the Africans are absolutely responsible for any transmission of African music to the island. People were forced onto slave ships in the worst of conditions. .
With respect to music, the turmoil of slave life ultimately blurred ethnic lines. Differing African tribal music blended in the New World to form neo-African music that were almost entirely African-derived, and yet non-African, for they were not to be heard in Africa." Later he asserts the concept that "musical survivals have been associated with social survival." As slaves in rural areas were concentrated in sugar production, port cities bustled with the arrival of slaves and supplies and the departure of agricultural products headed to European markets.