Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics: An ethnomusicological ethnography

Abstract

We believe that dancehall music’s more sexually explicit lyrics, labeled “slack” and maligned as evocatively misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic, mirror historically discordant social and economic tensions that entangle men and women in contested couplings, and thus render sexuality an instrument of socioeconomic power. Applying an ethnomusicological analysis, this paper fills a void by situating the slack Jamaican dancehall/ DJ lyrics within a revitalizing indigenization socialization perspective. By probing the cultural roots of this increasingly popular yet disparaged musical tradition that disturbs moral etiquette, we hear sexual bravado and counsel on love that betray important gender codes. For a particular social class, gender socialization nurtures a cultural consumer lovemap inscribed by a harsh economy during a particular point in time.

Keywords:

• cultural consumer lovemap
• cultural history
• dancehall
• economy
• ethnomusicological ethnography
• gender
• indigenization
• Jamaican slack music
• sexual theory

Acknowledgments

The authors most importantly thank the respondents who provided their stories for this paper, as well as SUNY Old Westbury for a 1999 fieldwork grant, the editors and reviewers who inspired greater depth, and Ken Bilby for his invaluable guidance and lyric transcriptions.