Much Has Been Said and is being said about Reggae/Dancehall, Its Future, and its purveyors. It’s not as if the commentators, purveyors, producers, and promoters are ignorant of the problem dogging the music. They all do, The problem is, even though, the Pioneers of Reggae and Dancehall, have left the templates for the future of the music, the new singers, performers, DJs, Producers, and Promoters continue to ignore it to their own peril.
Many thought When Soul Jah a largely white American Group Won The Grammy for Best Album, in 2022, then the Jamaican music industry, would have seen the proverbial writing on the wall, and wake up to the taste of the cerasse.
Alas, this was not the case as, convinced as they are, of their own importance, and omnipotence, the primary players within the industry, ignored what was a wake-up call, to continue on their path of ignorance and self-glorification on a journey of diminishing returns.
It’s not that the world had not given notice that what seems acceptable to Jamaican Audiences, would not fly abroad. It had, and the ‘Boom-Bye-Bye’ saga, was just one instance where the world stepped in to make its position clear, by blacklisting a number of artists on the international stage, canceling the visas of others with record labels refusing to sign others.
The point is, the warning signs were there, and the message that was on the signboard was that Reggae and Dancehall, were in decline, and unless changes were implemented, to stem the rush to the dung heap of history, then it would be only matter of time before the international music industry, would look for an alternative to reggae/Dancehall to fill the gap.
The reality is Reggae at the International level, is still viewed, by some, as Sub-cultural, if not counter-productive, and its influence was to be checked before it became a dominant force, competing with their best-selling genres. Problem was that the horse had already bolted, so the best-case scenario was to “manage” it out of existence. Ergo, Afro-Beat; Reggaeton, were introduced and promoted to dilute the influence of Jamaican producers, artists, and promoters, on the global market.
The success of early Re/Dancehall, for the most part, rested on the fact that the music at its core had a message of universal brotherhood; promoting the end of oppression, exploitation, racism, and tolerance underpinned by the concept of Love was the one true universal language.
These core messages found sympathetic ears in ghettoes across the globe; traveled up the social ladder found succor in the global middle classes and found
disciples in the intellectual crowd; with the only class deadset against Reggae/Dancehall from the very beginning being the Capitalist class and the ruling bourgeoise, who saw the message as destabilizing and inimical to their very existence.
Sadly, the new artists not only drifted away from the universal message, but they also weaponized the music in their prejudiced fight against homosexuality; Cunnilingus, promoted the misogynistic objectification of women; and even more debilitating, used the platform to promote violence, intolerance, and a culture of lawlessness. Instead of building on Music’s great foundation and taking it forward, they took the music and elements of the society with them, back into the dark ages.
Their songs became like fatwahs, issued from Stages and social media platforms across the globe, threatening to unravel the fabric of decency, holding Society together, by spreading the lucre of the threat of violence, hate, and disruption, not in support of a cause, but out of a deep-seated ignorance coupled with a sense of baseless entitlement.
And so, with Jamaica being the parent of Reggae/Dancehall, its guardians have absolved themselves of the responsibilities of nurturing Her and guiding Her to a place of referential dominance, opting instead to go for the cheap ‘forwards’, the petty cash and fleeting notoriety, many confuse with fame, at the detriment of growth and longevity.
It is no coincidence that the Greatest Ambassadors of Music, to date, have been Bob Marley and the Wailers; Lee Scratch Perry; Jimmy Cliff; Third World; Dennis Brown; Gregory Issacs; Burning Spear; Toots Hibbert; Garnett Silk; Marcia Griffiths; Black Uhuru; Culture; John Holt; and many others, and an examination of their catalogs and musical history, will show that the pettiness of the newer artists whose music seems to be all about their imagined sexual prowess, their hate of each other and denunciation of all things and people they dislike instead of celebrating love, life, and common humanity.
The preoccupation with the parochial has become the standard and not the exception. And this has caused the waning of interest as the lyrical deterioration has not gone unnoticed by fans and the music industry itself and the music biz leaders as reggae/Dancehall continues on its path to irrelevance, Afro-beat and Reggaeton are stepping into the void and providing the feel-good factor that global music fans want to tune into, especially at this time, in the wake of the covid pandemic, that upended many lives, and left many others unsettled…
The Reggae/Dancehall international public wants to love, hope, and brotherhood, not war or braggadocio… And until our artists, Producers, Promoters, and Djs come to grips with this, they will continue losing listenership and fans…
