Dance hall is a genre of Jamaican popular music forms. It has influenced almost every music forms locally and now internationally. But is the dance hall being influence by other music forms and cultures now? I set out to find out what makes dance hall and the music so uniquely Jamaican.
"Ole Gal yu nah come a di dance?" One woman shouted to her friend as she pass my gate. Night was approaching and almost all the young people I saw was heading to the direction of the lawn. They seem enthused and excited about this event that everyone has been talking about for weeks. I had never been to a dance before and my curiosity was pushed to a peeked because of an assignment I had to complete.
Music accompanied by the selector over the microphone could be heard from approximately 800 metres away. The selector was clearly in the mood for fun and his number one objective was to the get people to be engaged and enjoy them self to the max. He spoke in no uncertain terms to "come enjoy di dance man, come out in yu swagga and come mad yu matie, mad dem, raaaay, laaaard, wooooooie." He coaxed the ladies to "dress till yu drop and come bun out yu matieeee!"While he was saying this ladies walked back and forth stepping high and modeling. I could see that this was going to be very interesting experience hence I stood and observed in much finnier details.
The salute
As I stood and watch the phenomenon event I braced myself for the "what next" part of the night. I had always heard about dance hall and I intended to find out what puts this event in a league by itself and made it uniquely Jamaican.
Ladies dressed in clothe of different styles stemming from very tightly fitted pants to almost non at all. These women behaved in ways I think would be suitable for the bedroom only. When the selector played a song that was highly rated by the patron they made very loud gun shot sounds while holding up their hand in gun saluting positions. The selector who seemed to be under the influence of alcohol and music ever so often burst out with a bad word and "pull up" the tune again. Ladies dance among themselves while most of the men have "dance off". They appeared to be on one mission and that is to out beat their opponent and hold his title of "the big dancer". The men dressed in "spangy" pants and some were even in jacket and tie, the ganja being smoked (by the patrons both males and females) rum and red bull, Guinness, vodka Hennessey which were just a few of the strong alcohol being consumed.
This phenomenal experience was so eye opening.
European influence
Jamaica has a diverse and rich culture we are a multiracial society. Observing the dress code of the patrons, one realized that the style of dress that the patrons wore were obviously not mainly Jamaican, their dress code carries a distinct European influence. Many of the European styles of dress are being copied by us Jamaicans and are being accepted as the norm. Like our motto says "Out of Many One People".
Though dances have grown from Ska, rocksteady, (just to name a few), the dances found in the dance hall have evolved
From my observation our motto stands true in my heart and more so in my mind. Now, every where I go I look for elements that make me proud to be UNIQUELY JAMAICAN.
Jamaican Identity
without doubt the dance hall has had and will continue to have a significant influence on the Jamaican identity, through dress code, behaviour, language and values and attitudes. the ever changing code that exists in our current dance hall spills over into all categories of the society and can be seen even amongst students in schools. this strong phenomena also affects the way how people in the society behaves as dance hall and its music has often being viewed as one of the factors that proliferate violence in the society. The violence is also evident in the way we communicate with each other. The language used in all strata of the society is also influence by the dance hall slangs suce as "tek weh yu self", which has become popular in political speeches. The values and attitudes that now exist in our Jamaican society has been changing as the beats and dances in the dance hall evolve. Now "bare as you dare" now seems synonymous with dance hall as no pride goes into what is worn (which is not much). In addition derogative comments as now been accepted as "Gal and Dog", are words that are used to refer to the gender respectively. There is no doubt based on my current experience that the dancehall will continue to shape our Jamaican society.
The dance hall today continues to reflect the Jamaican identity which traditionally based on dancing as entertainment. Dancing is embedded in our culture which was predominantly influenced by our African decent. Though it as gone from Kummina to daggering, there are elements of these dance that cannot be mistaken anywhere in the world. The way we dance says JAMAICA without a word being spoken.
