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Dancehall music: setting the social context for coarseness, violence
Christopher Burns
Monday, May 14, 2007
A culture that embraces the vulgar and bigoted lyrical contents of much of its popular music which no longer promote good values or attitudes such as those expressed in the local gem, "Howdy and tenky nuh bruck no square", but aligns politeness with queerness, is a culture in need of cultural recalibration.
Christopher Burns
Similarly, a culture whose women glorify the repulsive lyrical contents of much of its popular music that uses inglorious adjectives to describe the most sacred parts of their anatomy is a culture moving towards cultural chaos.
However, the socio-cultural pathology started many years ago with what was intended to be biting commentaries on the social, cultural, economic and political zeitgeist expressed through music. But that quickly degenerated with the introduction of specific lingua francas into our cultural lexicon and we now have something less virtuous.
Today, some of these words denigrate women, glorify infidelity and promote a particular type of manhood and masculinity that encourages the use of the male genitalia as an organ for mass production, elevate intolerance, promote disrespect and disorder, discourage harmonious relationships and reinforce negative behaviour.
It is irrefutable that some of our dancehall music and the accompanying lyrical contents have done more to tarnish the image of reggae music, provoke violence and encourage coarseness than to promote peace and civility. A dancehall song that encourages people "nuh fi kin teet" automatically wipes the smiles off the faces of many - no wonder the countless sulky faces around.
The disharmonious contours that grace some of these "screw faces" are not due to any personal discomfort, but are reflective of a musical sub-culture that outlaws expressions of gentleness or politeness, especially among its male population.
Nevertheless, there is still a balm in Gilead, because there are some dancehall artistes who make consciously clean music and promote positive vibes.
They continue to articulate the issues of societal inequality and injustice without descending into the abyss of immorality and brashness as they register their disgust with a society they believe cares very little about those on the periphery. These "conscious" artistes deserve accolades because they are helping to cool the socio-political and economic temperature in ways that many at the political and economic directorate levels could never do.
Recently, fellow columnist Geof Brown dedicated a couple of his columns to this issue. His efforts are worthy of support and emulation. Geof's efforts, which follow those of columnists Ian Boyne, Mark Wignall and talk-show host Ronnie Thwaites, should help us understand better the connections between aspects of dancehall music culture, steady decays in social values and the threats to the dominant culture.
Therefore, those who spent years excusing this terrible withering away of our mores, on the basis of artistic liberty, must now understand that while one accepts that lyrical contents need context, we also need to consider the text on which we build that contextual relationship.
Simply put, much of the text is awful and out of touch with everything civil. There are dancehall artistes who wilfully use the lyrical contents of their music to set the social context for violence and coarseness and we must stop promoting them and pretend as though their lyrics are always innocuous.
Some of them wield tremendous influence in the communities where they live or grew up. When an artiste uses innuendoes and gestures that imitate an AK47, instructs supporters to "bust shot under dem fi diss de real shotta", and then one sees a simple conflict turning bloody, because of a disagreement over that particular artiste's worth, it is indicative of the power of negative lyrics. It is doubly hard to curtail the power and reach of this sub-cultural trend - a major driving force behind much of the social disorder and non-attainment of personal goals in Jamaica.
Take the issue of being police informers, for example, although a pre-dancehall terminology that identified people who gave information to the police who were abusing state power by targeting mainly Rastafarians. Present-day dancehall lyrics and the focus on violence now advocate the killing or maiming of informers. An informer, in today's dancehall lexicon, refers to people who report potential or actual crimes to the police.
Some dancehall songs contain specific instructions on what the ultimate punishment ought to be for informers. The instruction, "informers fi dead", invokes undeniable fear in potential witnesses and is perhaps the biggest hindrance the state faces in reducing or solving major crimes. It matters not that 80 people witnessed a crime; chances are not one of them will come forward, regardless of prior good relationships with the victim, to report it.
Of concern too is the apparent inability of some dancehall artistes to resist the use of foul adjectives to describe intimate activities between adults without regard to audience demographics. But ironically, the dancehall culture has also succeeded in desensitising and "deculturising" some women to the extent that they are unperturbed by what normal people would term distasteful.
If we extend this observation to the family setting, it becomes frighteningly clear that we have a major problem at hand. This is so because the possibility exists for many of the children of these women to emulate the negative behavioural traits and go on to develop low self-worth, thus contributing to the cycle of social and cultural decay and poverty.
Already, too many youngsters are aspiring to be gangsters, therefore we have to rescue the others as well as our society. This requires the collaborative efforts of the media, music producers, artistes, parents and most important, the consumers of the music.
Burnscg@aol.com
Christopher Burns
Monday, May 14, 2007
A culture that embraces the vulgar and bigoted lyrical contents of much of its popular music which no longer promote good values or attitudes such as those expressed in the local gem, "Howdy and tenky nuh bruck no square", but aligns politeness with queerness, is a culture in need of cultural recalibration.
Christopher Burns Similarly, a culture whose women glorify the repulsive lyrical contents of much of its popular music that uses inglorious adjectives to describe the most sacred parts of their anatomy is a culture moving towards cultural chaos.
However, the socio-cultural pathology started many years ago with what was intended to be biting commentaries on the social, cultural, economic and political zeitgeist expressed through music. But that quickly degenerated with the introduction of specific lingua francas into our cultural lexicon and we now have something less virtuous.
Today, some of these words denigrate women, glorify infidelity and promote a particular type of manhood and masculinity that encourages the use of the male genitalia as an organ for mass production, elevate intolerance, promote disrespect and disorder, discourage harmonious relationships and reinforce negative behaviour.
It is irrefutable that some of our dancehall music and the accompanying lyrical contents have done more to tarnish the image of reggae music, provoke violence and encourage coarseness than to promote peace and civility. A dancehall song that encourages people "nuh fi kin teet" automatically wipes the smiles off the faces of many - no wonder the countless sulky faces around.
The disharmonious contours that grace some of these "screw faces" are not due to any personal discomfort, but are reflective of a musical sub-culture that outlaws expressions of gentleness or politeness, especially among its male population.
Nevertheless, there is still a balm in Gilead, because there are some dancehall artistes who make consciously clean music and promote positive vibes.
They continue to articulate the issues of societal inequality and injustice without descending into the abyss of immorality and brashness as they register their disgust with a society they believe cares very little about those on the periphery. These "conscious" artistes deserve accolades because they are helping to cool the socio-political and economic temperature in ways that many at the political and economic directorate levels could never do.
Recently, fellow columnist Geof Brown dedicated a couple of his columns to this issue. His efforts are worthy of support and emulation. Geof's efforts, which follow those of columnists Ian Boyne, Mark Wignall and talk-show host Ronnie Thwaites, should help us understand better the connections between aspects of dancehall music culture, steady decays in social values and the threats to the dominant culture.
Therefore, those who spent years excusing this terrible withering away of our mores, on the basis of artistic liberty, must now understand that while one accepts that lyrical contents need context, we also need to consider the text on which we build that contextual relationship.
Simply put, much of the text is awful and out of touch with everything civil. There are dancehall artistes who wilfully use the lyrical contents of their music to set the social context for violence and coarseness and we must stop promoting them and pretend as though their lyrics are always innocuous.
Some of them wield tremendous influence in the communities where they live or grew up. When an artiste uses innuendoes and gestures that imitate an AK47, instructs supporters to "bust shot under dem fi diss de real shotta", and then one sees a simple conflict turning bloody, because of a disagreement over that particular artiste's worth, it is indicative of the power of negative lyrics. It is doubly hard to curtail the power and reach of this sub-cultural trend - a major driving force behind much of the social disorder and non-attainment of personal goals in Jamaica.
Take the issue of being police informers, for example, although a pre-dancehall terminology that identified people who gave information to the police who were abusing state power by targeting mainly Rastafarians. Present-day dancehall lyrics and the focus on violence now advocate the killing or maiming of informers. An informer, in today's dancehall lexicon, refers to people who report potential or actual crimes to the police.
Some dancehall songs contain specific instructions on what the ultimate punishment ought to be for informers. The instruction, "informers fi dead", invokes undeniable fear in potential witnesses and is perhaps the biggest hindrance the state faces in reducing or solving major crimes. It matters not that 80 people witnessed a crime; chances are not one of them will come forward, regardless of prior good relationships with the victim, to report it.
Of concern too is the apparent inability of some dancehall artistes to resist the use of foul adjectives to describe intimate activities between adults without regard to audience demographics. But ironically, the dancehall culture has also succeeded in desensitising and "deculturising" some women to the extent that they are unperturbed by what normal people would term distasteful.
If we extend this observation to the family setting, it becomes frighteningly clear that we have a major problem at hand. This is so because the possibility exists for many of the children of these women to emulate the negative behavioural traits and go on to develop low self-worth, thus contributing to the cycle of social and cultural decay and poverty.
Already, too many youngsters are aspiring to be gangsters, therefore we have to rescue the others as well as our society. This requires the collaborative efforts of the media, music producers, artistes, parents and most important, the consumers of the music.
Burnscg@aol.com
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