Dancehall Music and Jamaican Society: Which Influences the Other?

On this month's program we are featuring a segment on Jamaican dancehall music, some artists' anti-gay lyrics, and if society influences these lyrics or the other way around.

Listen to some popular dancehall hits and judge for yourself.

Note:  Materials may include questionable images and lyrics that some might find offensive.

Sizzla Nah Apologize

T.O.K ChiChiMan

So what are your thoughts on the lyrics?

Comments

[Jess, Acoustic Guitar Strings]

Awesome share. I'm kinda like their music.

[north pacific costa rica beach]

We all live in society, the society has to offer many things. At the same time, society evaluates you as a 'thing'. In other words, it finds out what are you are made up of, what you like to take from society, what you can offer etc... as per as the particular society is concerned. Yes, we live in many societies simultaneously and each society may have different opinion/discovery about you.

[Acai Optimum]

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[Laboratory Incubators]

Great Work !

Regards

[aion kinah]

If you are not happy with the homophobic atmosphere, don't go to Jamaica.

[trey]

Thoughtful and interesting program, this is what I expect from my local station and WPBT came through.

[Wendell]

Homophobia is something that is common throughout the Caribbean, it is just more in the forefront for Jamaica due to popular dancehall songs such as those listed here. History is mired with events of suppression, discrimination and segregation based on sex, colour, creed and religion. This is just one more. And even though modern society encourages and even forces conformity to be politically correct, there will still be those who refuse to have tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality. This is a fact of life just as with racism and religion. I think the real issue is not the fact that in general Jamaican society is against homosexuality but that it has not been deemed politacally or socaially incorrect to voice this opinion. From the musical point of view, I feel it expresses what is the current veiwpoint of the population at large. To say that dancehall is the cause seems to be incorrect. The violence expressed in the lyrics is disturbing, offensive and in the end, continues a point of view that is now globally unacceptable but this is more art imitating life than visa versa. As with any society facing these types of issues it will simply take time and effort from the bottom up to effect change.

[Leonard]

It is hard to really judge Jamaica by its music knowing that Reggae and Dancehall are some of the most exported songs in the world, so you have a large population of listeners. Yes Jamaican men are MEN, and want to have children with women, and sex with women. So it is very hard to understand men who want to have sex with other men.
If people are not happy with the music, don't listen to it. If you are not happy with the homophobic atmosphere, don't go to Jamaica. We need to leave Jamaica alone with this fake issue, as people have been living like that for years already, so no need to give Jamaica a bad reputation with this topic.

[AfroBrown Sugar]

How can you separate the music from its lyrics? You cannot say that you like a song without liking the lyrics! Liking Dancehall and dancing on it and not liking the lyrics in it? The three points of views answer that question.
Personally, I think we cannot deny that mysoginy is present in the Jamaican culture, so we cannot separate the music from its country's history and culture.