Future Troubles: The New Dancehall Economy and Its Implications in a Digital Age

[Originally published 2/27/11 in SX Salon with Edwin STATS Houghton]

Jammys is not playin’ sound no more, you not gonna see Inspector Willy inna dancehall, he’s a big-ass man. Wear glasses and all that shit. But their sons, and their sons after, is the ones that gonna keep the dancehall going.
—Beenie Man, FADER 23 (Summer 2004)

As the name suggests, dancehall has always primarily been a space (though rarely contained in an actual hall) wherein actors of all sorts—musical and otherwise—interact and perform. But it is also a culture, and is a medium of exchange that connects artists, deejays, dancers, selectors, soundsystem owners and operators, labels, backers, and fans. This culture, and the informal economy arising from it, is roughly perpendicular to the major label music industry, intersecting it and yet operating by a very different logic. This logic has become especially relevant as it has spread from Jamaica and reggae culture to influence soca in Trinidad, Barbados, and other Caribbean islands, as well as international music in West Africa and the United Kingdom. Dancehall music and sensibility play a key role in the cultural life of the diaspora generally and New York in particular. The advent of the internet and web 2.0 culture has irreversibly changed the material nature of this international role and as a result the indigenous culture itself has changed.

CD Sound: The 1990s and the Transition to Digital

The contribution of both Caribbean expatriates and the dancehall sensibility to the development of hip-hop music in New York has been well documented. However, less-well-studied is the enduring and evolving state of New York and diasporic dancehall beyond hip-hop culture. In the 1980s, the primary place for members of West Indian-American diaspora to connect to dancehall, reggae, and soca/calypso culture “back home” was the music shop: places like Super Power and Charlie’s in Brooklyn, VP Records and Spice Island in Queens, and Taurus Records in Dorchester, Massachusetts. American soundsystems, presenters, and deejays, such as King Addies and Dahved Levy, were prized for their extensive vinyl collections, and their dubplates. For a variety of reasons, the marketability of dancehall reggae music to core fans was based primarily on the quality of the voice and the musical production.

The 1990s introduced high-quality music videos and compact disc (CD) technology into reggae dancehall culture. Alongside the major-label signings of Shabba Ranks, Cobra, Supercat, and Bounty Killer, this technology altered some fundamental components of the economy. Videos for “Ghetto Red Hot” by Supercat and “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus and Pliers introduced a hip-hop flavor and the concept of marketing dancehall artists through voice and image. Videos and CDs also helped to further project the dancehall sensibility, spreading music and visuals across the Caribbean and its diaspora. However, the CD culture opened the door to piracy and posed a challenge to the vinyl and dubplate primacy. Previously unattainable songs could now be easily duplicated, Amazon and other outlets offered direct sales of obscure and brand-new reggae and soca records, and communication via e-mail and web marketing allowed people outside of the local industry to participate. The center was shifting. By early 2000, various digital networks presented a major challenge to the supremacy of the Jamaican soundsystem model.

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