The
dance halls of
Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s were home to public dances usually targeted at younger patrons.
Sound system operators had big home-made audio systems (often housed in the flat bed of a pickup truck), spinning records from popular American
rhythm and blues musicians and Jamaican
ska and
rocksteady performers. The term
dancehall has also come to refer to a subgenre of reggae that originated around 1980.