With some making the bold declaration that the Reggae Revival (which saw the emergence of talent such as Chronixx, Protoje, Jesse Royal, Kabaka Pyramid) has come to a screeching halt, and others outrightly pronouncing the genre dead, the timeless debate on whether reggae still holds its prestige among the pillars of world music has been rehashed.

A heated discussion unfolded inside the Kingston Creatives studio in downtown Kingston on Friday night as writers, music practitioners, and professors churned out arguments in hope of finding an answer to the question: Is reggae dead?

Likening reggae music to a primary colour, panellist Tom “Panic” Jones said, as a genre from which many others have been birthed, reggae music simply cannot die. Still, the musician and producer believes reggae music today has lost its spark.

According to Jones, reggae has always been “message music”; however, today’s artistes lack the revolutionary voice that once propelled the genre.

“I think the biggest problem we face in our culture today is that reggae was music for the rebels; the man who didn’t have a voice. I think there are too many people today who are afraid of ‘cancel culture’ for reggae to thrive. Reggae used to critique, chant down Babylon; but, in today’s day and age, most of the artistes who feed their families from reggae music are way too scared to ruffle any feathers,” he said.

Outlining that the reggae music being produced today is far softer and more subtle, Jones said that for reggae to thrive again artistes must get back in their “revolutionary bag”.

“Artistes a tour eno, but dem nah say Pales, much less stine. Dem ‘fraid fi say Palestine because dem scared. The battles dem picking are easy battles… Rastaman, if yuh nah sing about the issues, you don’t move me. Bob Marley moved people because him sing about the issues. Peter Tosh and Sizzla, during the time of their rise, stood for something. Cancel culture is so real today; nobody wants to take on certain issues. Reggae is not pop, it’s music that make people feel like they’re relevant and, until artistes get back to that, we’re gonna keep talking about this.”

Dutty Bookman, author, publisher, and the man who coined the phrase reggae revival, also chimed in on the issue.

Reggae is “obviously not dead, but kind of dying”, he said. “Let me explain that,” he urged as a confused audience glared back at him. “Reggae music will always be made, it will never stop being made, people are making it as we speak right now in a million studios in Jamaica and all over the world. It will never stop.”

“Now, reggae is dead in us as a people,” he continued. “Even at the time when reggae revival was getting a lot of discourse in the public…on the national landscape people were not following reggae as much. It was remarkable and a miracle that we had that reggae revival in that period in 2010. Reggae music will never die in terms of the production of it, but it is up to us as a people to embrace it and demand it the way we should.”

Dr Carolyn Cooper, literary and cultural critic, said while she agreed with her fellow panellists that reggae is not dead and has taken on a form of immortality, the genre is no longer the preferred choice of music for young people.

Cooper posited that “Reggae is like mento to young people of my generation…. For today’s youth, reggae is old people’s music. Their music is dancehall. Reggae is not going to die as long as you have people creating reggae, but it’s not going to be the music of this generation,” she shared. “You could almost say that it is dead to them, but not really, because it is a throwback, a cultural relic, and is something that they know, but it’s not their music.”

Jones, however, argued that the biggest reggae song of 2024 was YG Marley’s Praise Jah in the Moonlight. He said young people are very much in tune with reggae music; they just prefer a tame version.

“If we as the people in Jamaica don’t do the music that favours the youths inna South or Tivoli or the inner city, the oppressed, nobody will buy into it,” he said. “People love real. YG Marley take his grandfather’s hit song and turned it into the biggest song of last year because it was real. Maybe the reggae music of my grandpa is not what these youths want to be a part of, but it’s still reggae… it’s modern and the guitar swing a little differently, but it’s reggae.”

The timeless debate on whether reggae still holds its prestige among the pillars of world music has been rehashed.