An appeal has been made for a renewal in reggae music. The call from university lecturer and musicologist, Dr Clinton Hutton — at a symposium on International Reggae Day — was made against the background that many of the songs today are rooted in the culture of gangs.

Dr Hutton was one of the presenters at a forum at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre UWI, on Thursday, July 1 titled: Going Forward to our Rootz: Reclaiming the Healing Power of Reggae Music.

According to Hutton, “We have to see the thing in context and therefore I would say that there are songs from the past that are enduring and there are songs now that will be enduring.”

He recalled that within the first decade after the genesis of Jamaica’s popular music which coincided with birth of independence, the first theme in the music evolved.

“Jamaica developed its modern popular music form in what they called ska. And what we see, within three years in the development of ska, is the raising of a theme in Jamaica. We see by 1965 the first solo theme in Jamaican popular music — what is called the Rude Boy,” the lecturer in the faculty of social sciences said.

“Jamaica developed its modern popular music form in what they called ska. And what we see, within three years in the development of ska, is the raising of a theme in Jamaica. We see by 1965 the first solo theme in Jamaican popular music — what is called the Rude Boy,” the lecturer in the faculty of social sciences said.

An interesting point that came out of Dr Hutton’s discourse, was that, unlike the present trend, most of the songs about the rude boys, were against rude boys and gave an anecdote of how a veteran entertainer, under duress, had to record a pro-rude boy song.

“Tougher Than Tough, done by Derrick Morgan, supported the rude boys. And when I interviewed Derrick Morgan sometime ago about the song, he said he wrote the song under duress. One Buzz B, a gangsta…came to him (Derrick Morgan) and said ‘TOher artistes are singing songs about rude boys, how comes you not singing any about me. Write a song!’ And in fear of his life, he wrote the song and put it on a dub plate. Two days after, Buzz B was killed,” Dr Hutton said.

He further articulated the view that there were gangs in Jamaica before independence and the rude boy songs were done in a period when there was hope., citing the sort of populism that came with Derrick Morgan’s Forward March and Eric ‘Monty’ Morris’ Money Can’t Buy Life as examples.

“And so the songs reflected what was going on with the political situation. You have Leroy Smart’s Ballistic Affair and later on in the 1980s, Half Pint did Political Friction. Bob Marley recorded Ambush In The Night and Time Will Tell. Many of these songs used the extent to which slavery still exist in some form in Jamaica ….So you have a song called Poor Slave, you have a song called Freedom Street, Ken Boothe, you have a song called Catch A Fire, the Wailers. These are songs where elements of slavery were used to demote the extent to which freedom exist in this independence….then there were another set of songs about faith in self. Like Forever Loving Jah…..and there are many songs like that — I Am That I Am…”

However, according to Dr Hutton’s analysis of the trend, this rude boy thing got worse in the 1970s, and after that rude boys transformed themselves into criminal organisations and the people became political victims. A

“And we have to see that many of the songs today are rooted in the culture of gangs and the power of gangsters. There is no freedom for the country in these songs. None,” Dr Hutton insisted.

“The question is not whether it is dancehall or reggae. That’s not an issue. The issue,” the music historian stressed, “is what is the theme? What is the motivation of these songs? That tendency of the 70s to record freedom songs continues and there is a tendency of erotic songs from that time like Wreck A Pum Pum. The difference is there were designated space for those songs. And everybody knew that. Nobody expected those songs to be played on radio.”