We Love House Jamaica

Another exciting chapter in Jamaica’s rich cultural legacy will be written with the launch of the island’s first international house music experience on October 17, 2026 at Pineapple Beach, Montego Bay. This landmark event will introduce an elegant new entertainment experience, bringing together internationally acclaimed DJs, discerning music lovers, and visitors from around the world for an unforgettable celebration beneath the Caribbean sky. Before the beats drop, the Style Observer explores the history of house music in Jamaica.

For decades, Jamaica has been synonymous with rhythm — reggae, ska, rocksteady and dancehall have carried the island’s musical identity far beyond its shores. Yet beneath the familiar basslines and riddims, another sound has been quietly developing, finding its own place within Jamaica’s extraordinary musical landscape. House music, born from the underground clubs of Chicago and New York and later embraced across Europe, has been present in Jamaica for decades. Its journey from subculture to an increasingly visible part of the island’s nightlife owes much to a generation of Jamaican DJs and promoters who were willing to look beyond the established sound while never losing touch with the instincts of a Jamaican dancefloor.

The roots of that movement reach back to the 1980s. Boyd James began DJing in 1984, while Alric Anglin started in 1988, both developing their craft within Kingston’s vibrant club culture. James’s formative years in New York exposed him to the city’s underground dance culture and legendary clubs such as the Tunnel and Palladium, while back home Mixmaster Marvin’s Upper Room Sessions were helping forward-thinking Jamaican DJs experiment with house, hip-hop and dancehall through cutting, scratching and blending. When Alric & Boyd joined forces in 1992, they brought a distinctly open-minded approach to the turntables. Their sets could move through house, techno, jungle, drum & bass and hip-hop without apology, while still responding to the energy of a Jamaican crowd. By the mid-1990s, their FAME FM programme, The Edge, was taking house, progressive house, jungle, techno and speed garage into Jamaican homes and introducing listeners to sounds then transforming dance floors in London and Ibiza.