- FILE
Ken Boothe in performance at Heineken Startime, held at Mas Camp, Oxford Road, New Kingston, on Saturday, December 3, 2005.

Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

Ska increased your heart rate, it gradually slowed with rocksteady, sped up a little more because of reggae, then went to an all time high with dancehall.

Now what?

Dancehall music in its digitally made format has been around for 21 years, beginning with the Sleng Teng rhythm of February 1985, and while some see it as the devil's music and the source of all social ills, others are wondering 'Why hasn't another genre emerged yet? Does it represent the final stage of Jamaican indigenous music?'

Those in the industry say other forms will emerge; it is simply taking longer than usual. They say the problem is there aren't enough musicians making music; instead computer-savvy people are at the helm.

Donovan Germaine, a producer since 1978, says he doesn't think some modern producers are creative enough and this is making the process of change slower.

"Musically we've been regressing because a lot of the people who are not really musicians are now involved in music and now just touch a button on the computer. There are not many creative minds anymore. I see Don Corleone, Christopher Birch, Steelie dem doing a thing, but there aren't many out there and that is why there is this sameness in the music. They are only touching a button and recreating someone else's work," he said.

Though Jamaican music has been struggling to find a new sound, producer Cleveland 'Cleevie' Browne says the current fusions are indications that a change is on its way.

Different and unique

"No, it's not Jamaica's last genre. We have seen music changing over the years. It started with blue beat, then ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall. I think what should have happened is that the transition is so different and unique that each could have remained as a different genre by itself, because there are still fans of rocksteady and reggae and now with dancehall we are seeing some experimenting with dancehall in terms of the tempos have varied drastically. This is what you usually see when another genre is about to emerge," he said.

Browne pointed out that the popular 'reggaeton' originated from dancehall and is, in fact, the genre that has followed.

"It's there and emerged from dancehall; it's just that Jamaica has not really accepted it. If you listen to the music, it's similar to Shabba's Dem Bow. They basically reproduced the beat we did in the '80s, but no one can tell them it's not a new music form, but it evolved out of reggae ... now there are even fusions of the music between them and rappers, but the latest derivative of dancehall is still reggaeton," he said.

Dancehall to rap

Another music form that many may not realise sprung from dancehall is rap, though it is usually identified as being from the United States. What started out in the early days as 'toasting' by Jamaican deejays, such as King Stitt and Count Matchuki, soon turned into something else on the streets of New York through Jamaican migrant Kool Herc.

These changes in music didn't only take place in Jamaica or the United States, but also throughout the region. Other Caribbean islands also have their own form of music which has developed over time, some of which drew inspiration from other genres to create something new - and yes, this also took some time.

For Haiti is was vodou, which soon gave birth to voodou-jazz, also known as rapé (Haitian rap), which influenced the work of Wyclef Jean and the Fugees, the Zouk in the 1980s and Mizik Rasin in the '90s, among others.

Though bajun music is heavily influenced by English (classical) music and American jazz there is the also spouge which is mostly a fusion of Jamaican ska, Trinidadian calypso and other forms of music.

Then there is Trinidad's calypso, which is probably the only Caribbean sound that rivals reggae and dancehall in its popularity. It was this same calypso which was the root of soca, while chutney (from the Indian population) has gone on to breed subgenres like ragga-chutney.

These changes in music seem to just happen, with no one being able to give a particular reason except that each generation brings with it a different set of ideas.

According to Germaine, "It's because different generations want to have their own style of music and they want to have their own mark on the industry. There just aren't a lot of great musicians in the business now and that's why the music is stagnant and shows sameness ...

"If you are going to create music, then you need to learn the craft. The last set of good musicians were the early rocksteady musicians. If you look around you won't see another Sly and Robbie. Everyone is just using the computer and fingers making a few sounds. People need to get back to learning music," he said.

Spiritual change

Ken Boothe said "It's just a spiritual change. It just come. When I was young I was called 'Mr. Rocksteady'. To me, I didn't make no change, I just sing some slower songs and the rhythm play behind it and then is just so it happen."

Cleevie says when he and Steelie started experimenting in the mid- '80s it was not their intention to create a new genre; they were simply changing the beat. "Sometimes this happens through mistakes. Most times a musician buys the equipment but doesn't read the manual, so he uses the equipment in an unorthodox way, which was what happened in the early stages of dancehall ... I was taking out the sound chips and putting them into slots that weren't intended, which created unique sounds. Even the creators themselves wondered what it is that we did," he said.

"In the mid-80s we were the ones who started a new form of music. We came with digital music. Before that there were live bands. When we started, we didn't even call it that; it was the fans who started calling it that. We thought we were just slowing down the music," he said.

"We were the ones who re-introduced the slow beat, with the 'Sleepy Dog' rhythm. When we did that, the music was going over 100 bpm (beats per minute) and at one point 150, so that's when we came with the 'Street Sweeper' which was 85 bpm and it was a hit. We are never followers. When everyone is going one way, we go the other," he said.

Of course, people will have their favourite eras. Hubert King, who is in his late 70s, does not think much of dancehall. "Mi nuh fancy it because dem (artistes) too out of order according to what dem sing about. In our days we use to have quadrille and that sort of thing; we neva sing about the sort of things dem sing about today ... mi nuh see di great music inna reggae why everybody a clamour for it. I prefer rocksteady. Reggae just nuh nice like di first time music."

Dunstan Gaynor says his favourite music is lover's rock, because "When dem man deh a sing, yu actually hear wha dem a sing seh and it mek sense. Most of them sing in standard English."

Gaynor dismisses modern dancehall, the type which Cleevie referred to as being over 100 beats per minute. "Mi think a foolishness, because when you go dance ya now you nuh see nobody a dance it. Dem jus stand up inna a corner and a smoke or drink. Mi a listen to one from ... dah one deh ... di one whe colour him hair ... Elephant Man. Shizzle my nizzle, my wrizzle. wha dat mean? Dat nuh mean nothin at all. Wha im really a seh? Nothin at all. No message, no sense ... no sah," Gaynor said.

However, he has no problem with reggae. "Reggae is just a faster version of rocksteady to me. I have no problem with it. Rocksteady is a sort of one sort of one-track thing. Reggae is more diverse, I think," he said.

With those grim comments, one would think the future of Jamaican music looks bleak, but Germaine says "A little genius needs to come and do something but it's just that we might not be seeing it in this crop people. But the next thing is if radio stations are going to embrace the change."