Dancehall in the 20th Century vs the 21st Century

The type of music that was called Dancehall back in the 20^th Century, especially the late 80's and early 90’s, is not the same Dancehall today. This new era/generation of Dancehall has added a whole new meaning and sensation to the music we now call Dancehall.

Some older reggae artistes such as Leroy Sibbles and Desmond "Ninja Man" Balentine have labeled Dancehall as a place and not a category of music. This could have come from the fact that the name Dancehall originated from the music being being played in a Dance Hall.

To me Dancehall has always represented traditional Jamaican music that is performed live with a sound system before being released as a record. Contemporary Dancehall  does not portray music that really represents and brings out the beauty of Jamaica and Jamaicans. 

Dancehall continues to evolve with new personalities, trends, styles and rivalries, making it even more controversial than it ever was. When Dancehall first emerged it was a music that was about enjoyment and wordplay aimed at a strictly adult audience. Children were not supposed to listen 'grown people' music, however, they often found ways of listening to newly released songs interpreting the lyrics differently from what the artiste intended. The lyrics in Dancehall music at that time was often encrypted so that totally inoffensive words meant much more to the ear of  a veteran listener for instance;

Lovindeer, a popular 80's Dancehall artiste, has two songs , such songs, one entitled "Don't Bend Down" and "Two Nanny". Both of these songs are portraying a totally different message from what is actually heard or what one would think it is saying. It requires processing and thinking to actually capture the true meaning of the song. Nowadays most of these dancehall artistes lack the creativity needed to be a true artiste. Or should I say, yet to acquire the intellectual capacity needed to produce the same repartee or wordplay that the original dancehall artistes were able to use, to be deemed fit to be called an artiste based on the lyrical content of their songs.

Most Dancehall listeners would probably say yes a change is good and Dancehall now needs it and adding new flavour to the music is the way to go. I guess this was also done during the 90's where producers began mixing traditional dancehall with other genres or making it much faster and upbeat, so change in music is inevitable. But does this change the messages being delivered in these songs? You be the judge of that. To me Dancehall should not be about conforming to changes, it is about being different with our culture and music, it's about enjoying ourselves while telling the truth, being able to tell stories through music, spreading love, unity  and positivity all in one. That is what made dancehall different from other genres. These new era artistes are lacking creativity and  are seemingly somewhat confused, both the artistes and the listeners of these new artistes. 

For example Dancehall artiste, Tommy Lee, who portrays himself as a demon, has given himself  the moniker "Uncle Demon" and spews lyrics that demeans God and endorses evil behaviour and yet listeners and fans see him as a mentor/role model, promoting his stature in the music, while he has nothing positive to contribute to dancehall music or Jamaica itself. They look up to this superficial artiste when he seems to be downgrading Dancehall with his unscrupulous behaviour. Tommy Lee had a highly publicised concert in Trinidad and Tobago where only 9 patrons showed up for it, Read article. Is this a good representation of a so called icon of the dancehall or for dancehall music on a whole? Ask a person old enough to compare dancehall then and now he would say back in the days dancehall music brought the greatest 'vibe' and 'feeling' and now it's just 'noise'. Which led me to this question, is dancehall music dying?

Dancehall, Sex and Homosexuality

Attend any Dancehall scene today and both the female artistes and female patrons seem to be selling their bodies to the brightest video light. Based on this behaviour and the ways in which they are dressing, some even considered as 'naked', it would seem as if Dancehall is for people without any morals, self-respect and integrity. Resulting in other patrons and fellow females within the  community that are listening or watching these videos to start emulating this style of dressing and if they don’t go into the dancehall venues dressed this way, as what some may see as inappropriate, they don’t feel as if they are dressed for the occasion. What message are they sending here? How do they expect dancehall to be perceived with all of this going on? Are they aware of what they are doing or how this looks in the eyes of the outside looking in?

In Dancehall sex sells and as more and more artists emerge who continue to release sexual explicit songs promoting promiscuity the more acceptable it becomes in the Dancehall community. Vybz Kartel a very popular Dancehall artist has made a huge amount of hits promoting casual and oral sex, the latter traditionally being a definite ‘no no” in Jamaican culture. However, with an array of huge hit songs such as “Freaky Gyal part I, II and III”, “Go Go Club” and “Ramping Shop” it seems that these sexual scenarios are becoming the norm in Dancehall music. However when Vybz Kartel protégé Lisa Hype was caught in an uncompromising position on camera her performance was not applauded in the same way that Vybz Kartel spoke about. Instead she was ridiculed. She soon released her own song on the topic, but would this have been done if the picture was never released? 

Most men in the Dancehall community are praised for such songs, but when female artists talk about the same sexual acts they don’t seem to gain the same respect when doing so.

When Dancehall veteran Cecile relased her Oral Sex themed song “Do it to Me” in 2004 she just like Lisa Hype did not gain the same respect or radio play, for talking about such things in a song.

More recently however, we have seen a rise in female performers becoming more vocal and open about performing falatio as well as being accepted by the Dancehall community as artistes who are able to talk about this in Dancehall music. Is this a change in the direct where Dancehall music is going for the females?

During Sting 2012 the crowd cheered and applauded for new female artist Angelina whose song

 "Head Mistress", detailed how great her oral sex skills are. In the background you will hear the sounds of the horns blowing in acceptance and appreciation of the song.

Angelina said of her style:

“I am always confident in things that I do. We were discussing taboo topics, and I decided to do a song about oral sex. 90% of people in Jamaica take part in oral sex but are afraid of speaking about it. Look at Nicki Minaj, she raps about being a lesbian and oral sex but they are ok with it,” 

Is the Dancehall community becoming more accepting of this once taboo subject?

Back in the 20th century oral sex was seen and perceived as an act of nastiness and the word used to describe it was 'freak' which was the main thing that our dancehall culture was against. If you listen to the song  Nah Support Dem by artiste Chico you will hear how these sexual acts were perceived. 

Jamaica has always been a well renowned homophobic country, having zero tolerance for homosexuality and so was dancehall. One of these songs that could be seen to express the views of the Jamaican and Dancehall community is Buju Banton's "Boom bye bye" . This song was a huge hit for Buju in both Jamaica and in Dancehall , but it led to a lot of controversy internationally for Buju Banton and the other Dancehall artistes  who expressed how they felt about homosexuality the only way they know how to; through music. The video below will explain further.




Buju and Shabba Rank's Interview on Boom Bye Bye

Dancehall and Violence

Music is generally said to speak to the mind. Most people listen music to put them in a different mood or help them to clear their mind. Music affects our emotions and our thoughts and has been found to cause physical responses in many people. This leads us to wonder, with all the violent and sexual and degrading content in dancehall music at this time, can listening to it actually induce violent thoughts and behavior in people, especially in young people? Yes, dancehall music is a powerful force that has influenced many young Jamaicans in the wrong way. 

Jamaican musician Huntley Brown stated “When they listen to songs that degrade women, glorify drugs, use foul language and encourage violence, sooner or later, the young people will start to imitate what they hear and that's exactly what has happened in Jamaica. There has to be an urgency to fix this or we will lose an entire generation”. Dancehall artistes and even the media try to make it seem that this music has little influence on the minds of young Jamaicans, but in reality, they are hurting our people and our country when they normalise violence in this way. Take for instance a little boy I saw walking along the street one day. He was just about 11 years old. He was deejaying at the top of his voice a dancehall song about unloading his glock into someone else. He knew every word and accompanied the lyrics with the 'cocking' and 'shoot' action using his fingers. Now, why should a young child be listening to such a song that influences him to be making gestures of criminal actions?

Dancehall music influences behavior that is common to the criminal elements in our Jamaican society through the messages of violence and the glorification of the weapons used to take lives promoted in their lyrics. These dancehall artistes are role models for a lot of our Jamaican people especially the young ones. They look up to these people who sing about the violent things they will and can do to their enemies and all the sexual things they do to women. 

If the Jamaican people to continue to feed on these lyrics that encourages them to do violent acts and degrade women, it will eventually become something that is the norm to them and might even act upon them if the situation arise. Dancehall needs to change the message it sends through its musical content because it does no good for our society rather, it is corrupting the minds of our people, and particularly the young easily influenced ones.

Back in the days artistes only kill other artistes with lyrics, "lyrical war", singing about guns was just entertainment purpose nothing literal was meant nor perceived. Now as an artiste sing something, followers and other artistes takes it personal and has to do something about it e.g the Gully and the Gaza feud. The people of the dancehall and the producers are also to be blamed for this, they are the ones who are supporting and giving these artistes that drive to record these music, cause hey! That is what the patrons and most of the people in this society wants to hear, not realising that they are also the ones to be blamed.

It is very evident that Dancehall has changed drastically and the true meaning of Dancehall and what it is supposed to be might very well be dying. The artistes nowadays are killing the "vibe" of our Dancehall music and the industry and have lost sight of what the real Dancehall is.

I think there needs to be more conscious music, music that separates adults from children instead of music that promotes corruption, violence and sexual behaviour. Artistes need to find creative ways of bringing across their message especially for recording and leave the "raw" content for in the Dance Hall. But then again, children are the ones that are dominant in the dance hall venues nowadays.....