Sound clash: Jamaican dancehall culture at large

by Carolyn Cooper

In her essay collection „Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large" Professor Carolyn Cooper elaborates many of the ideas first explored in the penultimate chapter of her previous book „Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaican Popular Culture"(1993). In the essay „More Fire: Chanting Down Babylon From Bob Marley To Capleton" she compares two generations of Reggae artists and their use of the fire metaphor in order to not only show that Bob Marley was a revolutionary that didn't only preach One Love but also stood up for radical change. She also points out that today's „fire bun"-lyrics of Capleton and others are not as violent as they are often portrayed to be, but are merely a continuation of what 70s roots artists like Bob Marley had started. In "Slackness Hiding From Culture: Erotic Play in the Dancehall", she delineated recurring themes in dancehall lyrics, most notably the Deejays' preoccupation with sexuality. In Sound Clash she also draws attention to the globalisation of Jamaican dancehall culture as it crosses borders and creates new musical languages such as Apache Indian's 'mix' of Jamaican and Punjabi. Furthermore. Professor Cooper deploys the metaphor of the sound clash to highlight contestations of Jamaican identity that inevitably arise as the culture penetrates ideological spaces that cannot always accommodate difference.

The Book of Exodus – the Making & Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century

by Vivien Goldman (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2006)

Described as "vivid and intimate" by Rolling Stone, The Book of Exodus: the Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century (Three Rivers Press/Random House,) reveals a hidden yet crucial period in Marley's life and music. Exodus focusses in great detail on the arc of Marley's story between the politically motivated attack on his life in 1976, the Smile Jamaica concert, Marley's exile in London while making Exodus, the Punky Reggae Party which Marley named, and his triumphant return home to Jamaica in 1978 for the One Love Peace Concert. There are many Marley books and will doubtless be more; but Goldman's book is acknowledged to be the most personal, as she was his trusted chronicler, staying at his Kingston home right before gunmen broke in; being in the studio with him in Jamaica and Britain while he recorded Smile Jamaica and Exodus and travelling with him on the road. Her close connection and access to Marley and his world makes Exodus a unique insight into Marley, the man behind the legend, and his creative process. Inspired by the Rasta reasonings Marley loved so much, the book also examines the meaning of Exodus itself, and its interpretations by other artists who, like Marley, were drawn to its timeless saga of redemption.

Bob Marley – The Untold Story, by Chris Salewicz (Harper Collins, London 2009)

Chris Salewicz has written a insiders look into the life, music, and era of Bob Marley. He not only interviewed Marley (in 1979), but has interviewed many people who knew Marley well during various stages of his life. This book has many details that are missing from other books on Marley. What makes it interesting is the day-to-day detail Salewicz inserts throughout. The background on Marley's early life (walking to school in his uniform for instance) is in juxtaposition to the later Bob Marley recognized for his music and his politics. We also get a glimpse into Jamaican recording studios and Marley's first attempts at recording. We also learn about Rita Marley, and how she came to play a large part in Marley's life, about Marley's peace efforts, the attempt on Marley's life, and much more. Of primary importance to reggae listeners is the formation of his band THE WAILERS. Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh were important in Marley's life, and they are given due space in this book to show how they both shaped the music, along with the other members of the band. Along with details on the recording of the many classic albums by THE WAILERS, we also see how the Rastafari beliefs of Marley and his band played a large part in both the music and in life outside of music. This is not a "tell all" book, but a deep, inside look into Marley's life and world. For those wanting to learn the many small and large details of Marley, Jamaica, music, and the people in his life-this is the book to read.

I&I NATURAL MYSTIC by Colin Grant

I & I: The Natural Mystics examines for the first time the story of the Wailers, arguing that these musicians offered a model for black men in the second half of the twentieth century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh) or retreat and live (Wailer). It charts their complex relationship, their fluctuating fortunes, musical peak, and the politics and ideologies that provoked their split.

Following their trail from Jamaica through Europe, America, and back to the vibrant and volatile world of Trench Town, Grant travels in search of the last surviving Wailer. He unravels the roots of their charisma, their adoption of Rastafari, their suspicion of race pimps and Obeah men (witch doctors), and their quest to become not just extraordinary musicians but also natural mystics. I & I is a remarkable story of creativity, squandered talent and fierce ambitious rivalry – a mix of reportage and revelatory history.

Steppin' Razor, The Life of Peter Tosh, by John Masouri (Omnibus Press, London, forthcoming)

Here’s is the very first biography of Peter Tosh, rude boy, founding member of The Wailers and a compelling recording artist in his own right.

Tosh’s committed, and at times abrasive personality was forged in the same Trenchtown ghetto as his close friends Bob Marley and Bunny Livingstone. Together they formed the Wailers, the ultimate rude boy band from Jamaica, whose music would be increasingly fuelled by the twin influences of Rastafari and black power. Always the most outspoken of the group, Tosh contributed songs and vocals to their first two Island Records albums Catch A Fire and Burning before launching his solo career with Legalise It - the title track of which was promptly banned in Jamaica amidst a storm of controversy.

By then, Tosh – known as “The Toughest” – had developed strong, political beliefs that had seen him jailed after participating in riots and demonstrations in Kingston. His militant brand of reggae would be characterised by lyrics supporting the liberation struggle in Africa and defence of the poor, as heard on his second album Equal Rights. More intellectual than Marley, Tosh was part firebrand, part freedom fighter but conversely, was also well loved for his charm, his imaginative use of language and delightful sense of humour.

Fearless in speaking the truth, he endured serious beatings at the hands of the police on a number of occasions – most notably after his incendiary performance at the One Love Peace Concert in 1978. It was Peter’s fierce condemnation of the government – with Prime Minister Michael Manley and the Leader Of The Opposition sat in the audience – that brought him to the attention of the Rolling Stones, who made him the first artist to be signed to their own label. The two albums they produced, Bush Doctor and Mystic Man, would make him Jamaica’s most famous musical export after Marley. A hit single Don’t Look Back, shared with Mick Jagger, would prove the highlight of this alliance before Tosh had a notorious standoff with Keith Richards, involving rumours of a machete and loaded rifle.

In 1982, after releasing Wanted, Dread & Alive, he visited Africa for the first time. It was an experience that both reinforced his Pan African vision, and also precipitated a descent into disillusionment and eventual withdrawal from recording and touring that was to last until just before his death in 1987, when he was assassinated in cold blood by three armed men who forced their way into his Kingston home at gunpoint. His final album, the Grammy-winning No Nuclear War, had been released just a week earlier, and signified a triumphant comeback for this tragic and most controversial star of seventies’ Jamaican reggae music.

Man Vibes: Masculinities in the Jamaican Dancehall, by Donna Hope (Ian Randle, Kingston, 2010)

In Man Vibes, Donna P. Hope explores the expressions of Jamaican masculinities within the popular cultural space of the male-dominated dancehall. She delineates a path through the expression of the multifaceted male self evident in dancehall and highlights five prominent masculine debates in dancehall  - a hyper-heterosexuality that stresses promiscuity and sexual prowess (Ole Dawg), which is also evidenced in the aggression articulated through gun talk/lyrics as exemplified in the Badman or “Shotta’ representations gun/violence (Bad Man), and via the vigorous policing of the hegemonic heterosexual consensus in Jamaica, which condemns male homosexuality through an extreme, graphic and violence-laden discourse (Chi Chi Man). Conspicuous consumption and excessive male posing is another site of male identity (Bling Bling), as well as the softened and feminized masculinity evident in the refined aesthetic physicality and the choreographic impulses and colourful and flamboyant styles exhibited by some male artistes and dancers in the dancehall (Fashion Ova Style). Hope’s work uncovers several key factors involved in the identity formation process of some working class masculinities, and provides a road map for analysts, researchers and policy makers who seek answers to the current challenge of male underdevelopment and marginalization.