The Editor, Sir:

In this historic period for Jamaican music, it is appropriate that we dissect the issue to properly assess the pros and cons of the music itself, or should I say, the artistes.

I read with great interest an article in The Sunday Gleaner by Ian Boyne titled, From Bob Marley to Mavado. Correctly, he cited that somewhere during that musical transformation, something went wrong and that is an idea that I think we need to become conscious of.

I have heard a lot of the lectures and reasoning tabling the tremendous benefits that dancehall music presents for Jamaica's success, particularly in selling the country and ultimately boosting our tourism sector. However, I think we have bypassed one fundamental stage, which is assessing our product, and properly tailoring it for the market.

Trademarking vulgarity

The lyrical content of most (or the most popular) dancehall songs have been so concentrated on indecency, vulgarity and violence that it has trademarked our music to mean only that. Consequently, it has created this stigma among conservatives that once you hear dancehall, you expect these negative attributes.

In light of this situation, I want to ask those advocates what exactly would dancehall music promote? What exactly will we be selling with our music? How exactly will we be viewed around the world? Is the constant representation of war zones, poverty, and vulgarity in anyway beneficial to Jamaica? I think not.

Unfortunately, the entities that are usually relied on to ensure that sensibility prevails have failed miserably. As a matter of fact, they have increasingly relaxed their standard to ensure that they get their 'big-ups' by the artistes.

Of course, I am speaking of the media. Listening to some of the content played on the radio, one wonders whether these radio stations are at liberty to play anything they desire.

Isn't there a commission that should be monitoring them? It is now inappropriate to play the radio freely, as an x-rated clip might just surprise you.

Strict regulations

I think the authorities need to revisit their regulations and return to the days when only radio-friendly songs were allowed publicity. As such, they need to implement strict regulations that the media need to honour.

In this way, artistes who want to get aired will either write clean lyrics or voice a radio-friendly version. Clearly, the simple splicing or rewinding a line by disc jockeys is not working. This is usually so unnoticeable that it is as if you were hearing the raw music.

We need to return to those days when we cared for the children, when we respected our duty as public entities. Moreover, artistes need to realise that music was originally made to express one's feeling. Are they saying that they are murderers etc? Maybe it should be okay for them to be apprehended for their lyrics then.

I am, etc.,

JEFFREY BROWN

jeffreya_brown@yahoo.com

Duanvale P O