Define and Preserve Our Music Genres

Groundins

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

Sunday, September 26, 2010

I am encouraged by the fact that the debate initiated by Dennis Howard's blog post, Dancehall Is Dead, has continued. A number of other individuals have given more dimensions to the reasoning, with significant contributions coming from Clyde McKenzie Is Dancehall Dead? and Cecelia Campbell-Livingston Dancehall's Redemption in the Sunday Observer of September 19, 2010.

It is high time for us to lead the discussions on these issues of import to our Jamaican music industry, rather than forever reacting or playing catch up to analyses by European/American media, reggae aficionados and academics — with their own cultural prejudices and biases.

McKenzie's commentary addresses the critical need "to ascertain exactly what are the structural components of this...derivative of reggae." In order to get the ball rolling, he proffers the keen observation that "one of the distinguishing features of dancehall is a pattern of vocalisation which seems to have a greater affinity to rhythm than to melody".

I wish to urge Jamaican musicians and producers involved in the creative process of recording dancehall music to complement this with any other major underpinning musical elements, which from their point of view fleshes out a comprehensive definition of the dancehall genre.

For far too long we have allowed foreigners — without the advantage of the cultural context — to define who we are and the resultant products of our innovation and creativity. It was for this reason that during Reggae Month this year, JARIA (Jamaica Reggae Industry Association) launched what we intend to be an annual series of genre-specific events, staged weekly at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Two of the main objectives of this venture are to educate young people about the background influences that impacted on the history and progression of Jamaican popular music, and to develop for ourselves an accurate definition of all genres of our music.

In her piece, Cecelia Campbell-Livingston directed us towards the incipient solution to "the crude, violent and derogatory lyrics permeating the market". She rightly refers to a new crop of emerging artistes, aiming to inject positive energy and messages into the genre, by writing and performing social commentary, "to uplift Jamaica and the world itself" (Khago) in the rich tradition of its progenitor: reggae music.

I myself have observed and previously written about this new crop of artistes in my column. The local media, for their own perverse purposes, remain, it seems, transfixed in a mode of continued focus on the fiendish behaviour and stereotypical lyrics of the dinosaurs of the dancehall. This is a major source of dancehall's problem. Just like the plethora of live music events mushrooming at many restaurants and other venues all over Kingston and St Andrew, so too are these acts given little exposure and publicity by the Jamaican entertainment media.

After my review of his blog post, I had a long discussion with Dennis Howard in which he emphasised the point that the international marketing of dancehall music was being severely stymied by all the accumulative, negative antics and publicity which now seems almost synonymous with the genre. There is no gainsaying the fact that, due to this reputation, all Jamaican acts are being lumped into one basket so that the benefits from the popularity of the genres are accruing disproportionately to non- Jamaican reggae and dancehall artistes/musicians. While this is happening, the new fad in Europe has embraced indigenous roots music and acoustic, unique/uncommon instruments. As a consequence of this, some of the more successful tours of this summer were those of our foundation reggae artistes, like Earl 'Chinna' Smith and his Inna Di Yaad Crew, and the Jolly Brothers Mento Band, who themselves are riding the crest of the waves generated by the success of Gilzene and Blue Light Mento Band in Europe since 2009.

From a marketing standpoint, therefore, Dennis' proposal for a new name to connote a clean break in the recent past is an excellent idea.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com