Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica
Jamaican dancehall has long been one of the most vital and influential cultural and artistic forces within contemporary global music. Wake the Town and Tell the People presents, for the first time, a lively, nuanced, and comprehensive view of this musical and cultural phenomenon: its growth and historical role within Jamaican society, its economy of star making, its technology of production, its performative practices, and its capacity to channel political beliefs through popular culture in ways that are urgent, tangible, and lasting.
Norman C. Stolzoff brings a fan’s enthusiasm to his broad perspective on dancehall, providing extensive interviews, original photographs, and anthropological analysis from eighteen months of fieldwork in Kingston. Stolzoff argues that this enormously popular musical genre expresses deep conflicts within Jamaican society, not only along lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, and religion but also between different factions struggling to gain control of the island nation’s political culture. Dancehall culture thus remains a key arena where the future of this volatile nation is shaped. As his argument unfolds, Stolzoff traces the history of Jamaican music from its roots in the late eighteenth century to 1945, from the addition of sound systems and technology during the mid-forties to early sixties, and finally through the post-independence years from the early sixties to the present.
Wake the Town and Tell the People offers a general introduction for those interested in dancehall music and culture. For the fan or musicologist, it will serve as a comprehensive reference book.

1112033395
Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica
Jamaican dancehall has long been one of the most vital and influential cultural and artistic forces within contemporary global music. Wake the Town and Tell the People presents, for the first time, a lively, nuanced, and comprehensive view of this musical and cultural phenomenon: its growth and historical role within Jamaican society, its economy of star making, its technology of production, its performative practices, and its capacity to channel political beliefs through popular culture in ways that are urgent, tangible, and lasting.
Norman C. Stolzoff brings a fan’s enthusiasm to his broad perspective on dancehall, providing extensive interviews, original photographs, and anthropological analysis from eighteen months of fieldwork in Kingston. Stolzoff argues that this enormously popular musical genre expresses deep conflicts within Jamaican society, not only along lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, and religion but also between different factions struggling to gain control of the island nation’s political culture. Dancehall culture thus remains a key arena where the future of this volatile nation is shaped. As his argument unfolds, Stolzoff traces the history of Jamaican music from its roots in the late eighteenth century to 1945, from the addition of sound systems and technology during the mid-forties to early sixties, and finally through the post-independence years from the early sixties to the present.
Wake the Town and Tell the People offers a general introduction for those interested in dancehall music and culture. For the fan or musicologist, it will serve as a comprehensive reference book.

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Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica

Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica

by Norman C Stolzoff
Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica

Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica

by Norman C Stolzoff

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Overview

Jamaican dancehall has long been one of the most vital and influential cultural and artistic forces within contemporary global music. Wake the Town and Tell the People presents, for the first time, a lively, nuanced, and comprehensive view of this musical and cultural phenomenon: its growth and historical role within Jamaican society, its economy of star making, its technology of production, its performative practices, and its capacity to channel political beliefs through popular culture in ways that are urgent, tangible, and lasting.
Norman C. Stolzoff brings a fan’s enthusiasm to his broad perspective on dancehall, providing extensive interviews, original photographs, and anthropological analysis from eighteen months of fieldwork in Kingston. Stolzoff argues that this enormously popular musical genre expresses deep conflicts within Jamaican society, not only along lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, and religion but also between different factions struggling to gain control of the island nation’s political culture. Dancehall culture thus remains a key arena where the future of this volatile nation is shaped. As his argument unfolds, Stolzoff traces the history of Jamaican music from its roots in the late eighteenth century to 1945, from the addition of sound systems and technology during the mid-forties to early sixties, and finally through the post-independence years from the early sixties to the present.
Wake the Town and Tell the People offers a general introduction for those interested in dancehall music and culture. For the fan or musicologist, it will serve as a comprehensive reference book.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780822325147
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 06/23/2000
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 328
Product dimensions: 6.04(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Norman C. Stolzoff, Ph.D. is president of Ethnographic Insight, Inc., a consumer anthropology and marketing research firm in Bellingham, Washington.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xxv

1 Dancehall Culture in Jamaica: An Introduction 1

2 "From Way Back When": The Dancehall from Slavery to World War II 20

3 "Talking Blues": The Rise of the Sound System 41

4 "Get Up, Stand Up": The Dancehall in Post-Independence Jamaica 65

5 The Dub Market: The Recording Studio and the Production of Dancehall Culture 115

6 "I'm Like a Gunshot Heading Toward a Target": The Career Trajectory of the Dancehall Entertainer 151

7 "Run Come Inna the Dance": The Dancehall Performance 193

8 The Politics of Dancehall Culture: A Conclusion 227

Notes 249

Bibliography 273

Index 285

What People are Saying About This

Deborah Pacini-Hernandez

Deborah Pacini-Hernandez, author of Bachata: A Social History of Dominican Popular Music

Stolzoff's comprehensive analysis will unquestionably be an important contribution to the growing field of Latin American/Caribbean popular music studies. But beyond its importance as the 'first' study of dancehall, this book is outstanding because of its theoretical sophistication, its comprehensive scope, and its firm grounding in extensive fieldwork among dancehall participants.

Beenie Man

Beenie Man, reigning king of the dancehall and two-time reggae Grammy nominee for Many Moods of Moses and The Doctor:

Dancehall is not just about music, it is about a way of life.  Norman Stolzoff clearly understands this.  I would tell anyone who wants to get a picture of reggae and the Jamaican people to take a read of Wake the Town and Tell the People -- it's worth it. 'Blessed.'

Roger Steffens

Roger Steffens, co-author of Bob Marley: Spirit Dancer and Old Fire Sticks: The Autobiography of Bunny Wailer (forthcoming):

Norman Stolzoff has gone where many fear to tread -- to the very heart of the dancehall milieu in the depths of the Kingston ghetto, emerging with the first full, objective look at this fertile birthing ground of Jamaican music. Wake the Town introduces us to many of the prime figures in DJ culture -- producers, promoters, selectors and artists -- and traces their history back hundreds of years. It is a remarkable work.

Andrew Ross

Andrew Ross, author of The Celebration Chronicles:

This is the first sustained study of Jamaican dancehall music and culture in all of its aspects. Everyone interested in the island music, and in popular music in general, will find something useful in this book.

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