NARCISSISIM AND DANCEHALL

Groundins

By: Charles H. E. Campbell

In the main, over its lifetime, Reggae Music, musicians and artistes have had the commendable, unique characteristic, among all pop music genres, of not promoting or succumbing to narcissistic tendencies.

Reggae has thrived, penetrated numerous other world markets and cultures, and has sustained its world wide popularity. At our core, Jamaicans are a cosmopolitan people, given the cross-fertilization and ethnic assimilation, inherent in our cultural background and traditions as well as our geographical location, at the cross roads of world trade for over 500 years. This has bequeath us with a continuous window to the world and a constant pulse on global trends. We are famous for our ability to empathise with the struggles of peoples from far-flung countries with whom traditionally, we have no direct cultural links. This world view has served us well, with an innate ability to interpret our national or personal life-challenges and strife in such a way that it has a karmic connection with peoples and nations of all creeds, nations and religions.

At its dawn, the evolution of our modern Reggae Music was significantly influenced by other musical idioms which were current in that era, including Mento, Ska, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues/ Soul and Rock and Roll to a lesser extent. Essentially, our songs highlighted, voiced concerns and even sought redress on issues such as national, class and race discrimination, prejudice and oppression. They became clarion calls for justice, peace, universal love and harmony. Early dancehall music maintained this progressive formula and approach.

In the 80’s, one of the international markets places that eventually came under the influence of Reggae/Dancehall’s militant anti-establishment stance was the alienated Urban North American youth, who were experiencing the twin evils of racial and class stigmatization and victimization. Their collective self-worth especially among young urban males was very low. Therefore, when they began to interpret and adapt the music from their cultural perspective, Hip Hop was born with all its negative features such as narcissism, vulgarity, crudity and misogyny.

In the 90’s, as Jamaican Dancehall acts began to obtain distribution contracts with American record companies, some A & R executives used undue influence to encourage our artistes to borrow from and infuse this Hip Hop beat and lifestyle into their music. Before that we did not call our women ‘hoes and bitches’ nor did we call our bredrin ‘dawg.’ What we are left with in Jamaica today is a poor imitation of Hip Hop music as the sound track to what we still euphemistically call Dancehall music.

The irony is that while our local media remains, to too large an extent, focused on this segment of the industry, internationally, from a marketing standpoint, Dancehall music has seemingly reached a plateau, and therefore this has not been an effective long-term marketing strategy. In fact, what we are observing in the international market place is a resurgence of requests for overseas performances and tours by those Dancehall Acts who came to the fore during the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.

Meanwhile, based on their publications and programming, our local media appear to be totally oblivious to these current trends. Their daily restrictive diet and corrupt payola practices continue to stifle local creativity, diversity and Jamaica’s once proud position of being the market leader in Reggae Music.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Narcissism-and-dancehall_11109148