The Jamaica Star :: Commentary :: Singing youths to their graves

Elgin Taylor, STAR Writer

St Catherine:

Much has been said of late about the negative effect that dancehall music is having on the Jamaican psche. It has even been stated that it is killing reggae music.

References are being made to the lewd and violent lyrics of dancehall, and that it is serving to influence others in the society. The young are seen as the most vulnerable group, as they generally look up to these artistes as role models.

Persons have called on the Broadcasting Commission and other bodies involved to clean up the music and to ensure that radio only play music which is proper for airplay. The practice of payola is said to be a problem too, as some disc jockeys are being paid to play certain music which may not be in the best interest of the listening public.

Schoolchildren affected

Recently on a school campus, a male student was overheard asking another why he was always singing gun tunes. His schoolmate replied that the DJ was his artiste, and he just loved that kind of lyrics. The singing student lives in an inner-city community, and rather than giving him hope, his favourite artiste was 'bigging up' and gloryifying the gun.

I must hasten to point out that not all dancehall tunes are bad, and there are artistes out there who try to educate and uplight others with their lyrics.

It is also to be noted that the involvement of Christian DJs in dancehall has helped to give the music a cleaner image. And, although their main focus is on winning souls for Christ, artistes like Papa San, a reformed Lieutenant Stitchie, Prodigal, DJ Nicholas and others have been playing their part.

U-Roy has been credited as the originator of dancehall music, and though this may not be accurate, he certainly paved the way with his song Wake the Town and Tell the People in 1970.

I bet that never in his wildest dreams did he expect the music to come to this pitiful state. Maybe he should have left us all in our slumber.