Black Culture, White Youth

Thanks to digital music and online networks, musicians no longer need to operate within small geographical scenes anymore. Ideas and influence can spread rapidly, being shared and shaped by anyone who's feeling them. The interactions between UK-centric music and Jamaica is no exception. For example, jungle, garage, grime and dub step are all borrowed from dancehall reggae, both sonically and culturally. This is not really surprising when you consider the great depth of reggae music dedication sites and blogs that I have come across in my many hours learning and contemplating the reggae subculture..

From sites which provide direct connections to Jamaican radio sites, providing 24/7 access to play lists from around the global network of reggae music, to those which combine mp3s, gig and album reviews to enable a gateway into the reggae culture and teach those such as myself, who remain slightly naive, in the cultural commodities and ideologies associated with reggae. Interestingly I also came across "myreggaespace.com", a virtual community heavily influenced by the Western networking site "myspace". The reggae take on this global phenomenon no doubt demonstrates the cultural impacts on Jamaican society which have developed increasingly over the years through influences that have served to detach reggae from its historic association to its Carribbean ancestors and their British descendants.

This assertion coincides with the work of Paul Gilroy in his ground-breaking book, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack (1987). In the extract published in The Subcultures Reader (2005)Gilroy explains the ambiance created amongst British youth that was previously undiscovered and unknown. The emergence of a subcultural resource, totally different in kind and effect to the mainstream capitalist influences from white American popular culture, was provided through reggae and its sound technologies.

There has always been an element of coercion between London-centric dance music and Jamaica, with meeting points such as the Greensleeves ragga jungle projects, Beenie Man alongside So Solid Crew and Harry Toddler on the Pum Pum grime riddim, but the explosion of UK dance music in the early 90s, almost eclipsed the growing English dancehall scene entirely. Recently however it seems London bass might be kick starting a new chapter of JA/UK musical connectivity and creativity. In understanding the barriers that have to be overcome in musical styles and production, it is necessary to understand also the importance of the traditional dancehalls for both the Jamaican reggae music industry, which grew directly out of the activities of the sound system, and for the expressive culture of black Britain in which they remain a core institution. The most essential characteristic of the dancehalls and the sound system is the centricity on records not live performances. Thus the records become the raw material for the spontaneous performances of cultural creativity and improvisation.

Gilroy states, 'It is above all in these performances that black Britain has expressed the improvisation, spontaneity and intimacy which are key characteristics of all new world black musics, providing a living bridge between them and African traditions of music-making which dissolve the distinctions between art and life, artefact and expression which typify the contrasting traditions of Europe'

It is interesting to see now then that recently Jamaican artists are following the trends typically set up by, ironically, those who "borrowed" techniques and styles from dancehall reggae. Although it is unclear whether these similarites are occurring consciously or unconsciously, since as i mentionened earlier, digital music technologies are making connections between different genres significantly easier, with producers on both sides of the Atlantic using the same software to programme their beats. There is no doubt that there are barriers to be diminished in order fo Jamaican artists to incorporate what have now become British musical traits and approaches, for example, difference in production values and difference in tempos, but it is going to be nothing short of exciting to see how all these styles combine and how, if it all, they may connect and grow togther to develop new contemporary tracks which can begin to inhabit a new generic sphere of the dancehall scene, originating in the soul of the Carribbean.




REFERENCES
Gilroy, Paul. "Diaspora, Utopia and the Critique of Capitalism", in The Subcultures Reader. Ed. Ken Gelder Routledge, London and New York: 2005.