Dancehall
Dancehall (also Dancehall Reggae ) is a genre of music based on reggae that has similarities with hip-hop . Toasting , a type of spoken chant made famous by artists like U-Roy , had a major influence on the development of Jamaican dancehall .
Originally, the term Dancehall Reggae did not refer to an independent style, but simply the music that is played in the Jamaican dancehalls (the venues for large dance parties, the so-called dances ). Since the ragga (or raggamuffin) sub-genre usually dominates here, dancehall is often used today as a synonym for ragga or ragga with electronic stylistic elements.
description
Singing and toasting is done on bass and beat-heavy, danceable riddims (instrumental pieces), which in the dancehall area are mostly produced using synthesizers and drum computers and mixed by a selector (equivalent to the DJ in the USA and Europe) of a sound system . Over the riddims is a chant, mostly on patois , toasted or chanting ( chanting ). The performer is usually called a DJ (also called Deejay ). An artist who does not toast but sings is called a singer. For performers who practice a mixture of both types of singing, the name Singjay is common. It is typical that each stanza is rhymed using the same pronunciation of the last syllables in the verse . Chanting in dancehall is known as toasting or chatting . It differs from rap in that it is performed not only rhythmically, but also in a voiced tone that can also merge into smaller melody lines. Dancehall parties are often called dances or bashments .
Texts, homophobia and the legal consequences
In contrast to roots reggae, which is partly strongly influenced by the Rastafarian religion, dancehall is hardly religious.
Similar to American hip-hop, there are also many sexisms and texts that glorify violence. Also striking in dancehall is the strong homophobic tendency, expressed in the Battyman tunes , which has caused quite a stir and protests from z. B. gay organizations. This homophobia is based in part on cultural and religious grounds.
“There is hardly a country in Latin America or the Caribbean that has such a homophobic climate as in Jamaica. This has been fueled in recent years by young dancehall reggae musicians like Beenie Man , Buju Banton , TOK , who openly call for gay bashing (physical violence against gays) and even the killing of gay men in their songs. ”Wrote in 2004 Klaus Jetz, the federal manager of the German Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) .
As a result of their calls for murder against homosexuals, Bounty Killer and Sizzla were advertised in the Schengen information system for rejection at the borders, but both managed to enter Germany again. As a result, Sizzla was prevented from entering the country by Spain. The British activist Peter Tatchell coined the term murder music for the homophobic works of dancehall and reggae as early as the mid-1990s . Singers like Capleton claim that the lyrics are not to be taken literally and are in no way a call to burn people or things. “Fire” does not mean a real fire, but a spiritual fire that purifies the soul, a concept that also occurs in biblical texts. Sizzla says there is "no need to be afraid of the fire".
Dancehall in Europe
Dancehall riddims have found their way into the European music scene more and more since the second half of the 1990s, in which native-speaking artists, for example from Germany or France, use dancehalls independently and also differentiate themselves from the content of the Jamaican scene. Examples are artists or bands such as Seeed , Dr. Ring-Ding , Gentleman , Mono & Nikitaman , Benjie and PR Cantata .
Germany has now established itself as one of the non-Jamaican dancehall strongholds, along with Japan , for example . Some riddims Seeed were internationally known her " Doctor's Darling " - Riddim (originally Gregory Isaacs "Night Nurse", later: "Waterpumpee" at Seeed - " Germaican Records ") was of Jamaican celebrities like Tanya Stephens , Sizzla and Luciano used .
Reggaeton
The reggaeton music genre is an independent version of dancehall from Spanish-speaking Latin America . It is primarily produced in Puerto Rico and Panama , but has been popular across Latin America since the 1990s . It combines dancehall riddims based on the model of the “Dem Bow” riddim with Spanish lyrics in the gangsta rap style (and partly also with Latin American melodies / rhythms).
Well-known artists
Germany
Switzerland
Austria
literature
- Stascha Bader: Words like fire: Dancehall Reggae and Raggamuffin . Buchverlag Michael Schwinn, Neustadt, Germany, 1st edition 1988, 2nd edition 1992, ISBN 3-925077-11-1
- Norman C. Stolzoff: Wake the town and tell the people: Dancehall culture in Jamaica . Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2000
- Helber, Patrick: Dancehall and Homophobia. Postcolonial Perspectives on the History and Culture of Jamaica . Bielefeld: Transcript, 1st edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-3109-8
Web links
- History of Dancehall (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Jetz: Deadly agitation in dancehall reggae. The murder of Brian Williamson and the Jamaican hat songs. ILA 278. ( Memento of March 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) September 2004
- ↑ The FIYA BURN Controversy: On the Uses of Fire in a Culture of Love and Rebellion ( Memento from June 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )