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Caribbean/ Jamaica/ Dancehall dance and music, without which it is impossible to imagine Jamaica
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Caribbean/ Jamaica/ Dancehall dance and music, without which it is impossible to imagine Jamaica
Dancehall began to develop in Jamaica in the late seventies and early eighties of the twentieth century.
By that time, the entire culture of this country was saturated with reggae.
But with the development of digital technologies and the popularization of electronic music, new rhythms and sounds began to be added to the simple and cute reggae motifs.
The progenitor of dancehall is Sugar Minott, who tried new arrangements for the famous reggae compositions in Jamaica back in the late sixties.
By the beginning of the eighties, many performers appeared on the rise of dancehall, whose work is already considered a classic today.
Among them, such singers as Yellowman and Shabba Ranks, it was thanks to them that dancehall was able to win the hearts of many Jamaican listeners, pushing even reggae.
But many dancehall performers appeared not only due to fashion and the "unworldliness" of the musical style.
The fact is that the production of dancehall was much cheaper than reggae.
While reggae required a lot of folk musical instruments and, consequently, those people who could play them, for dancehall, one sound system was enough.
But, of course, in dancehall, you can often hear the motifs characteristic of reggae.
These styles even originally had a similar name — dancehall appeared under the name "raggamaffin".
And despite the fact that dancehall was distinguished by fast rhythms and a very peculiar performance, which made the music somewhat more fun and incendiary, the lyrics in the songs remained very serious.
They often raised the themes of violence, social injustice, repatriation, in addition, in many dancehall compositions one could hear intolerance towards sexual minorities, by the way, while the rest of the world is obsessed with fighting homophobia, this trait is still characteristic of dancehall.
More or less light and often humorous lyrics could only boast of Eak a Mouse and Yellowman.
The latter became the first Jamaican artist since Bob Marley, who was able to sign a contract with an American record label.
By the mid eighties, digital sounds in dancehall finally replaced the original reggae motifs.
The key song of that time was the song "(Under Me) Sleng Teng", completely recorded on a synthesizer by Wayne Smith in 1985.
It is interesting that even then the so — called riddims were characteristic of dancehall certain beats on which different artists record their tracks.
There were even cassettes that contained a certain riddim and its interpretation by several artists.
So, about two hundred compositions were subsequently recorded on the riddim "(Under Me) Sleng Teng".
It is noteworthy that by that time dancehall had become so popular in Jamaica that many reggae artists, such as Militant Barry, Gregory Isaacs, Johnny Osbourne, Beres Hammond and U Ro, had switched to this style.
By the early nineties, dancehall had finally spread beyond Jamaica.
The first international hits written in this musical style were “No, No, No", performed by Dawn Penn, " Mr. Loverman “recorded by Shabba Ranks,” Worker Man "- Patra and "Murder She Wrote", which was sung by Chaka Demus and Pliers.
By this time, many female performers began to work in dancehall.
Among them, the most famous are: Lady Saw, Sister Nansy, Lady Junie.
But perhaps the most famous is Tanya Stevens, it was she who gave dancehall the unique sound of a unique female vocal.
At the end of the twentieth century, there were some changes in the music world of denhall, which brought with them a new generation of producers.
Fortunately, and maybe unfortunately, the era of riddims written by Steely and Cleavy, who for twenty years could be called a kind of monopolists of dancehall, has ended.
In the first half of the two thousandth, the popularity of dancehall reached a new peak when the names of Elephant Man and Sean Paul became known around the world.
The latter belongs to the compositions that have led many international charts for many weeks.
The most famous among them are "Gimme the light", "We be Burning", "Give it Up To Me" and "Break it Off" (a duet with Rihanna).
These songs are familiar even to those who do not know what dancehall is.
Today, this musical style is recognized all over the world and its elements are included in their compositions by such famous artists as Beyonce, Rihanna and Christina Aguilera.
Of course, with the appearance and formation of music, the dance style was also formed.
As mentioned earlier, dancehall was originally called "raggamaffin".
It got its modern name due to the dance floors ("dancehall" in English - "dance hall", "dance floor"), where the Jamaican people "lit up" to the music performed by a DJ.
In Jamaica, dancehall remains a favorite dance to this day.
It is performed by both men and women.
Moreover, the interpretation of the same movement is absolutely different for dancers of different sexes.
After all, dancehall contains a lot of anti homosexual slogans, so men use the movements of the legs and shoulder girdle in the dance, while women's performance is more mannered and sexy, with flirty movements of the hips and chest.
From the outside, it may seem that the dance performance of dancehall is a set of chaotic movements, but this is not at all true.
In fact, this style has long grown into a whole dance culture and often dance uses movements that describe the problems and peculiarities of Jamaican society.
Depending on the nature of the dance, the problems raised in it and the place of its performance, dancehall is divided into urban, street, marginal, gender and communicative.
It is also interesting that the whole history of Jamaica is inscribed in the movements of dancehall.
This dance is a kind of example of collective memory there.
At the same time, there is a certain contradiction associated with dancehall.
While dancers and musicians preach the fight against racial and social inequality, they themselves look very fashionable, bright and expensive.
Many believe that this is the influence of Western culture, overshadowing true values.
The performers themselves justify themselves by saying that if they looked gray and poor, they would simply not be noticed.
However, this does not in any way detract from the importance of dancehall in Jamaica.
Another problem of dancehall (and this applies to both music and dance, because dancers often parody gay people in their performances and make fun of them in every possible way) is that it is replete with anti — homosexual sentiments.
Many dancehall compositions have been repeatedly criticized by various international organizations.
Often, because of this problem, concerts and performances of dancers were even canceled.
At the same time, the singers claim that the rejection of their lyrics is an attempt on freedom of speech, and homophobia is a cultural feature of Jamaica.
And many scientists believe that this is indeed the case.
After all, the society there is deeply patriarchal, in addition, there are a lot of Christian fundamentalists among the population.
Therefore, the Jamaican mentality has a true concept of masculinity and rejection of gays.
Literally everything is saturated with dancehall in Jamaica.
They know how to dance it from an early age and no decent party can do without this music.
Any Yamaian will name at least ten reasons for the importance of dancehall, among them will definitely be: "with the help of it, the invisible becomes apparent," "dancehall is an important means of communication" and a simple "stress relief and self — expression".
Therefore, it is not difficult to guess that dancehall in Jamaica is an institution of a whole culture, in which dance and music, society and politics collide.
Number of impressions: 8860
Author: Svetlana Baranova
Rating: 3.66
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