THERE IS no denying the power and attraction of dancehall music and culture. So powerful is its raw energy and force that it has reached several corners of the globe where even some of the creators of the music have not been.
Over the last few years the music and culture have grown, and have attracted growing corporate support for its tremendous earning potential. One more development which has taken place is its increasing presence on television.
People can now sit down before their television sets and get a fully mediated experience of what the dancehall is about. They are able to see the mode of dress, the foods that are sold, the mannerisms of those who dance, and the actual behaviour of avid dancehall goers inside the dancehalls.
They can hear the latest music releases, the tributes to area leaders, the unapologetic condemnation of certain groups, and everything else that takes place in the dancehalls by just flipping the channel. Similar to how America feeds itself on MTV, BET, and other pop culture stations, the entire world of dancehall is pumped into thousands of television sets in Jamaica.
SIGHTS
These sights have always been available, but were sold as tapes mostly in stores. Today, dancehall culture is a product that is packaged, promoted, and presented to those who do not wish to attend the sessions to get the experience for themselves.
With the sharp rise in the number of community channels on the cable networks, and the rise in entertainment channels themselves, dancehall culture has become even more pervasive on the local level.
The Sunday Gleaner made checks with six cable providers that cover the entire Corporate Area and one which covers Portmore and Spanish Town. They all either had channels dedicated exclusively to dancehall, or hosted the stations RETV, Hype TV, and Music Plus which have heavy dancehall content.
Sauce Communication Network Ltd., Allied Cablevision Company Limited, and Jamaica Amalgamated Cable System Limited (JACS) all have exclusive dancehall channels, plus they host one or more of the three stations.
Omni Cable Servs Limited and Entertainment Systems Limited both have community channels which regularly feature local dancehall, plus they host the three in addition. Telstar Cable Limited and Logic One Limited representatives said they had no exclusive dancehall channels but they hosted the stations.
LOCAL CHANNELS
Entertainment Systems hosts four local entertainment channels. Real TV, Hype TV, RETV, and Cableview. While these channels are not restricted to dancehall music and culture exclusively, it makes up a good portion of their content. One of the directors of Entertainment Systems, Stephen Chung, acknowledges the rise in dancehall transmission into homes, and traces it to a rising demand by people for seeing dancehall on television.
"It came on to the cable stations because it's what the people wanted," he stated. "They wanted to see more of themselves and their communities, the interest was there and the demand grew more and more." He told The Sunday Gleaner that since their transmission of the four channels, the response from the subscribers has been tremendous to date.
An informal survey by The Sunday Gleaner revealed that people had several different reasons why they subscribe to the channels which offer dancehall content.
A few watch it to catch the many dances which are now popular, others to see their favourite entertainer/s in action, for others it is to see their sound system, and for a few, they want to see themselves or people they know.
Keisha, a 19-year-old Portmore resident, says that among other things, she watches them to stay in touch with what is happening because she can not go to all the events. "Another thing I watch it for is to see what people are wearing. When you watch them, you catch the latest fashion in the dances," she explained.
Suzette a 25-year-old student, says that she tunes in to the stations for the music they play and nothing else. "Late at night when I have nothing else to do this is a good way to listen to some of the latest music. That's the best thing about them," she said.
Yvette Rowe, a lecturer at the Caribbean Institute Of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at The University Of The West Indies, Mona, St. Andrew, argues that the demand for seeing dancehall on television is an extension of the demand for the music itself.
"What I would say is that the increased dancehall music videos on television has much to do with the popularity of the music. After all, VH1 and MTV are built on the appetite for watching music videos, an extension of the radio appetite for music, so why should Jamaica's youth market be any different?"
Added to this reason she feels, is just the traditional want for people to see themselves. "And I suspect that another thing the local music video brings is a glimpse of Jamaica and Jamaicans. Whatever you think of, the themes, the lyrics, the poses, the fashion, it is a slice of Jamaica and that I think adds to the popularity."
CONTENT
One of the most recent stations which features dancehall content heavily is RETV. One of the founding partners, Kimani Robinson, agrees that there is a rise in dancehall programming on cable television, and adds that this situation is doing more than one thing at once. For him, it shows the culture of one set of people to another and vice versa.
"...We are exposing what is known as downtown and bringing it uptown, and we are exposing what is known as uptown to downtown," he states. "One of the things that RETV has set out to do is to dispell the stereotypes to what has been described as dancehall culture and close the divide between uptown and downtown." These, he adds, come through the variety of shows that the station has.
With this demand, and with dancehall's resurgence on the international community, this trend does not seem set to stop soon. As we see more and more of our stars rise from obscurity to stardom, more people will tune in to local stations to see what our dancehall culture is about, and the loyal fans will tune in to continue celebrating the culture.
