Is violent dancehall music okay?
- Hugh Graham
- May 3, 2021
- 1 min read
Sunday, May 02, 2021
Hugh Graham
ACCORDING to Aristotle, “Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul…” and so is the nature of dancehall music. Said differently, music can encourage and prohibit certain behaviour. As such, the type of music is liable to bear some responsibility for appropriating and or influencing some actions — whether negative or otherwise.
However, it is the extent to which we attribute blame that ought to be assessed. In this case, we are tackling the notion that consumers who listen to violent dancehall music are far more likely to commit acts of crime and violence in our society.
The argument has been raised as many times as it has been debunked using controlled studies, surveys and statistical data. However, let us rehash the issue and argue it from a point of shared experiences and common sense.
We have all in some way been exposed to violent content of some sort. Some of us can recall times of old when cinemas like Carib featured what we call “karate shows” and how excited we all were to view the said content.
We might also be able to recall times when Jamaica Information Service (JIS) used mobile units to project movies of similar nature in different communities across Jamaica. These movies had the usual intermission period in the middle where the JIS would broadcast important messages, on screen, to the viewers. This proved very effective as it was both an approved source of entertainment and a means by which the JIS could communicate messages to the communities.
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