Global Reggae

by Carolyn Cooper (Editor)

Overview

These plenary lectures from the “Global Reggae” conference convened at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica in 2008 eloquently exemplify the breadth and depth of current scholarship on Jamaican popular music. Radiating from the Jamaican centre, these illuminating essays highlight the “glocalization” of reggae – its global dispersal and adaptation in diverse local contexts of consumption and transformation.

The languages of Jamaican popular music, both literal and metaphorical, are first imitated in pursuit of an undeniable “originality”. Over time, as the music is indigenized, the Jamaican model loses its authority to varying degrees. The revolutionary ethos of reggae music is ranslated into local languages that articulate the particular politics of new cultural contexts. Echoes of the Jamaican source gradually fade. But new hybrid sounds return to their Jamaican origins, engendering polyvocal, cross-cultural dialogue.

From the inter/disciplinary perspectives of historical sociology, musicology, history, media studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, the creative/cultural industries and, above all, the metaphorical “life sciences”, the contributors to this definitive volume lucidly articulate a cultural politics that acknowledges the far-reaching creativity of small-islanders with ancestral memories of continents of origin.

The globalization of reggae music and its “wild child” dancehall is, indeed, an affirmation of the unquantifiable potential of the Jamaican people to reclaim identities and establish ties of affiliation that are not circumscribed by the Caribbean Sea: To the world!

Co-published with Institute of Caribbean Studies and the Prince Claus Fund.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789768125965
Publisher:	The University of the West Indies Press
Publication date:	12/11/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carolyn Cooper is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and 1992, she initiated the establishment of the university’s International Reggae Studies Centre. Her publications include Sound Clash: Jamaican
Dancehall Culture at Large and Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the “Vulgar” Body of Jamaican Popular Culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction: Jamaican Popular Music A Yard and Abroad Carolyn Cooper 1

1 Reggae as Black Space Erna Brodber 21

2 From Mento to Ska and Reggae to Dancehall Peter Ashbourne 37

3 The Impact of Jamaican Music in Britain Amon Saba Saakana 49

4 The Evolution of Reggae in Europe with a Focus on Germany Ellen Koehlings Pete Lilly 69

5 Reggae in Cuba and the Hispanic Caribbean Samuel Furé Davis 95

6 Reggae in the French Caribbean Teddy Isimat-Mirin 127

7 Reggae Music Documentaries in Brazil Leonardo Vidigal 149

8 Reggae Music in the Bloodstream Roger Steffens 169

9 The Journey of Reggae in Canada Klive Walker 185

10 Reggae Griots in Francophone Africa Cheikh Ahmadou Dieng 213

11 Roots, Diaspora and Possible Africas Louis Chude-Sokei 221

12 Gender, Class and Race in Japanese Dancehall Culture Marvin D. Sterling 241

13 Oceanic Reggae Brent Clough 263

14 Dub: Electronic Music and Sound Experimentation Michael Veal 285

15 Reggae Studies at the University of the West Indies Carolyn Cooper 301

16 Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management Kam-Au Amen 315

Contributors 327