Abstract
The chapter discusses the most characteristic and influential of Italy’s early scenes which emerged in the Apulian city of Bari in the early 1980s and which found voice within the South’s first centro sociale, la Giungla. This process created urban narratives that sought to negotiate the alienating effects of heroin addiction, consumerism, social isolation, and political apathy through a renewal of the counter-hegemonic ideals, politics, and practices of the late 1970s. The synthesis of pre-existing elements of Italy’s political youth subculture (centri sociali and radio libere) with practices and idioms originating in Jamaican and British reggae culture, and in British and Italian punk culture (the sound system, dub reggae, and fanzines), marked this first phase of reggae’s transculturation in Italy.
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- 1.
Different Stylee was Enrico Trillò—drums; Antonella Di Domenico—bass, lead vocal; Gianluca Iodice—keyboards, guitar, bass, melodica; Mimmo Pizzutilo—rhythm guitar; Sandro Biallo—keyboards, percussion; Nico Caldarulo—percussion; Michele Tataranni—trumpet; Lello Monaco—trombone; Terry Vallarella—backup vocals.
- 2.
Due to its marginal and underground quality, there have been limited studies dedicated to Bari’s scene. Nevertheless, two works have shed light upon this fundamental yet obscure context. Published in 2008, Tommaso Manfredi’s book, Dai Caraibi al Salento, collates interviews and other primary and secondary sources to form a narrative of the evolution of the Apulian reggae scene. In 2011, Mattia Epifani’s documentary film, Rockman , developed and enriched key aspects of Manfredi’s text. As well as exploring the formation of Different Stylee and their cultural activities at la Giungla through new interviews and rare footage, the film focuses on the enigmatic figure of Militant P (Piero Longo) and his transportation of reggae from Bari to the neighbouring province of Salento.
- 3.
Pizzutilo is still active in the (southern) Italian reggae scene through his work with the Bass Culture booking agency and his involvement with one of Italy’s many self-constructed sound systems: I&I Project Sound System from Altamura.
- 4.
In levare can be translated as “upbeat” and emphasizes the characteristic offbeat or upbeat rhythmic pattern of Jamaican popular music.
- 5.
The majority of his account is taken from edited segments of a personal interview conducted with him in August 2012. In the interest of readability, we provide only our English translation of the edited segments included in this account.
- 6.
As in other parts of Italy, leftist youth politics in Bari were firmly ideological and divided between sectarian organizations such as the Trotskyites, Stalinists, anarchists , or Lotta Continua . Lotta Continua (“Continuous Struggle”) was a far Left extra-parliamentary group which published an eponymous newspaper.
- 7.
Pizzutilo’s friend and fellow member of Different Stylee, Rosapaeda , confirms that her own passion for reggae started with Bob Marley but was facilitated by “Mimmo Superbass” (Pizzutilo ) who shared with friends his record collection and organized for them to get together to listen to this music (Email interview).
- 8.
The anni di piombo (Years of Lead) refers to a period from 1969 to the early 1980s in which political and social unrest in Italy led to more than 14,000 acts of politically motivated violence. During this time, there were approximately 567 right-wing and left-wing terrorist groups active in Italy, killing 362 and injuring 4500 people. For a detailed discussion of the social and political context of the anni di piombo, see Lumley 1991, pp. 279–312; Ginsborg 1990, pp. 348–405; Bull and Giorgio 2006; Vecchio 2007; and Voglino et al. 1999.
- 9.
For a confronting cinematic depiction of this epidemic, see Claudio Cagliari’s film, Amore Tossico (Toxic Love, 1983).
- 10.
The politically and ideologically fraught relationship between youth belonging to the movement and black music is confirmed by Florentine reggae veteran, Stefano “il Generale ” Bettini, who participated in the free music movement of the late 1970s and explains that reggae, funk, and early rap were seen in a bad light because they were heard in the discos and therefore associated with political apathy (Personal interview). Pizzutilo also explains that at that time there was an emphasis on “cerebral” progressive rock and jazz-rock.
- 11.
Hebdige argues that the uncompromising and subversive “blackness” of reggae resonated with the “anarchic values” of punk (1979, p. 64). The evolution of these connective marginalities between punk and reggae perhaps reached its apex with the emergence of the black Rastafarian punk band, Bad Brains, in Washington, DC in the late 1970s.
- 12.
Pizzitulo explains, “We associated with the punks in Bari, but not because we liked the same music. We understood them better because they were fanatics like us. They were also quite politically rebellious. We weren’t rich kids. We didn’t have money to go to clubs and we met on the street. We had the example of punk-reggae in London, we knew about these things. We all liked The Clash” (Personal interview).
- 13.
The first examples of self-production in the anarcho-punk movement date back to the foundation of Bologna’s Attack Punk label in 1981.
- 14.
Il Grande Ducato Hardcore refers to the Tuscan anarcho-punk movement, which had its base at Pisa’s Victor Charlie and produced a fanzine called Nuove dal Fronte , in which there was a section dedicated to reggae.
- 15.
The origins of Bari’s anarcho-punk scene date back to 1979, a couple of years after the phenomenon reached Italian shores, with a raucous concert at the university’s Faculty of Languages by a group named Wogs. This was the beginning of a series of concerts involving, amongst others, Massimo Lala, who was to become “an icon of Bari’s punk scene ” (Mansueto 2006, p. 89) and Different Stylee’s first vocalist. Bari’s punk scene expanded with the emergence of groups like Bloody Riot, Undernoise, Lobotomy, Last Call, Rem, and Skizo.
- 16.
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a crucial figure in the history of British reggae and black British cultural identity. He is renowned for the militant nature of his poetry, largely written during the racially charged Thatcher era of the late 1970s and early 1980s. For an analysis of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s dub music and reggae poetry, see Chap. 4 of Dawson’s Mongrel Nation. Concerning the practice of stencilled lettering, Pizzutilo explains that, following the example of the punks, they would reproduce logos and lettering on clothing and their cars (Personal interview).
- 17.
As explained in the previous chapter, dub is the remixed version of a record, with the vocal either entirely or partly removed. On the remaining rhythm track, the bass and drums are brought to the foreground, and the other instruments are fragmented and distorted through sound effects, such as echo and delay, along with other mixing techniques.
- 18.
Veal explains that dub was able to articulate post-modern subjective and cultural experiences through aesthetic fragmentation by using music “as a way of using art to break down the power of excess wordage.… Fragmentation can also be seen as inevitable in an age in which cultural codes of all kinds are being deconstructed, reconstructed, and recombined at an unprecedented rate” (2007, p. 259).
- 19.
The “strategy of tension” refers to a series of right-wing terrorist attacks that were linked to institutional forces and aimed to create the pre-conditions for an authoritarian regime. The strategy is discussed in further detail in Chap. 5.
- 20.
A particularly effective strategy was the imposition of an exclusion policy for those under the influence of the drug, which was combined with the incentive of only being permitted entry to the centri sociali when sober. The provision of a choice between access to the centri sociali and heroin consumption facilitated rehabilitation.
- 21.
- 22.
A few examples being: Mussolini’s Fascist regime; the pre-1976 state monopoly of radio; the surreptitious taking over of Italy’s leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, by the anti-democratic Masonic lodge P2 in 1977 (see Ginsborg 2001, p. 147); the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a single man: Silvio Berlusconi (see Stille 1995).
- 23.
Ital Reggae was overseen by Gianni “Asher” Galli, one of the first music journalists to specialize in reggae in a magazine with a national circulation: Rockerilla. Digitized versions of Ital Reggae have recently been made available through the Liguria Reggae website. Selected pages of the five issues of Rebel Soul, the three issues of Ital Soul , and the sole issue of Ritmo Vitale were digitized by Mimmo Pizzutilo and posted through his Facebook page in September 2012.
- 24.
Founded in 1977, Teatro Tendastrisce is a historically significant open-air concert venue which can hold up to around 4000 spectators. Marco Provvedi, nicknamed “Daddy Reggae” due to his pioneering role in organizing some of Italy’s very first reggae events, was a musician and concert organizer/promoter. In 1986, he established the record distribution network, Good Stuff, specializing in reggae and other black music.
- 25.
Pinerolo’s Africa United being the only notable absentee.
- 26.
1986 also witnessed the release of Puff Bong’s first and only recording, a 12-inch disco mix containing the tracks “Goin’ On” and “One More,” and Africa United’s first self-produced and self-distributed LP, Mjekrari.
- 27.
Pizzutilo explains that Different Stylee had played at a large reggae festival in Rome in July 1985 boasting renowned Jamaican and British artists, such as Barrington Levy, Gregory Isaacs, Sly and Robbie, Militant Barry, and Jah Woosh. Bertie Stammer was the sound engineer on that day, and he was so impressed by Different Stylee’s sound that he invited them to his studio in London.
- 28.
The tonal quality of Rosapaeda’s vocals is comparable to that of Puma Jones, who sang with the internationally acclaimed Jamaican reggae outfit, Black Uhuru, during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- 29.
“Armageddon” is pronounced in the Rastafarian manner as Armagideon, which conflates the name of this apocalyptic battle with the biblical character of Gideon, a warrior and man of God whose name means “destroyer.”
- 30.
David Harvey explains how the break with deeply embedded Keynesian economic principles and the penetration of egocentric values of self-enrichment into the Western popular consciousness “required the prior construction of political consent” (2005, p. 39). He contends that the Gramscian notion of “common sense” (defined as “the sense held in common”) typically grounds consent. Harvey states that “common sense” is typically constructed “through the corporations, the media, and the numerous institutions that constitute civil society” (2005, p. 40).
- 31.
Craxi was the godfather to one of Berlusconi’s children and a witness at his wedding. In 1984, Craxi quashed judicial opposition to Berlusconi’s push to establish a national television monopoly.
- 32.
These recordings can be listened to and downloaded from Mimmo Superbass’ SoundCloud account (see Discography).
- 33.
The term tarantella is used generically to refer to a range of southern Italian folk dances. The specific dance name varies with every region, for example: tammuriata in Campania and pizzica in the Salento subregion of Apulia.
- 34.
Footage of M’Boye performing the song “Day by Day” with the band can be viewed on YouTube at the channel of amed ox.
- 35.
Jeans 2 was a programme promoting emerging music groups; footage of this performance is included in the documentary, Rockman .
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Discography
Different Stylee. 1986a. Chernobyl Dub (Mr Babylon Heavy Mix). Mini Album Dubwize. Mole Reggae Diffusion. EP.
———. 1986b. Mr Babylon. Mini Album Dubwize. Mole Reggae Diffusion. EP.
———. 1988a. Serenata. Serenata. Mole Records. 12-inch.
———. 1988b. Spread Your Love. Serenata. Mole Records. 12-inch.
Johnson, Anthony. 1982. Gun Shot. Gun Shot. Midnight Rock. LP.
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Scarparo, S., Stevenson, M.S. (2018). “Inna Different Stylee”: The Renaissance of Youth Culture and Politics in Bari. In: Reggae and Hip Hop in Southern Italy. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96505-5_3
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