Sound Clash

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction: Word, Sound, and Power

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 1-33

3. Border Clash

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 35-72

4. Slackness Personified

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 73-97

5. Lady Saw Cuts Loose

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 99-123

6. “Mama, Is That You?”

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 125-144

7. “Lyrical Gun”

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 145-178

8. “More Fire”

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 179-206

9. “Vile Vocals”

   • Carolyn Cooper

   Pages 207-229

10. Hip-hopping across Cultures

    • Carolyn Cooper

    Pages 231-249

11. “Mix Up the Indian with All the Patwa”

    • Carolyn Cooper

    Pages 251-277

12. The Dancehall Transnation

    • Carolyn Cooper

    Pages 279-301

13. Back Matter

    Pages 303-348

    PDF

Megawattage sound systems have blasted the electronically-enhanced riddims and tongue-twisting lyrics of Jamaica's dancehall DJs across the globe. This high-energy raggamuffin music is often dismissed by old-school roots reggae fans as a raucous degeneration of classic Jamaican popular music. In this provocative study of dancehall culture, Cooper offers a sympathetic account of the philosophy of a wide range of dancehall DJs: Shabba Ranks, Lady Saw, Ninjaman, Capleton, Buju Banton, Anthony B and Apache Indian. Cooper also demonstrates the ways in which the language of dancehall culture, often devalued as mere 'noise,' articulates a complex understanding of the border clashes which characterize Jamaican society, and analyzes the sound clashes that erupt in the movement of Jamaican dancehall culture across national borders.

• culture
• energy
• society

'Cooper makes compelling - and as usual - controversial arguments about the fundamental relevance of dancehall music to the critical understanding of Jamaican culture to claat.' - Colin Channer, author of Satisfy my Soul and Waiting in Vain

CAROLYN COOPER is a Professor at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She is the author of Noises in the Blood.

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