She said ‘Wham-a-lama-rama Now hear dis!’
My apologies to any natty dreads who happen to stumble upon this post and who may very well recoil in horror at the comparison I am about to make, but each time I’ve heard Swear In, the Cocoa Tea/Ninjaman duet on how dancehall outstrips all other musical forms, I’ve found myself put in mind of Rock ‘n’ Roll is King, a 1983 single by Electric Light Orchestra, which I was introduced to by my wife, last year and which I’ve been cursing ever since as the chorus has been stuck in my head and shows no sign of shifting.
Both tracks extol the virtues of their respective genres at a time when both may have been perceived to be under threat by other forms. However, in ELO’s case this was a diversion, a look back at a musical form which had inspired them when they were younger, but which had nothing to do with their legacy or their future. Whatever ELO’s music could be defined as over the previous decade, rama-lama riffs hadn’t really played much of a part in their rise and the dominant trends of 1983 pop - Synth-pop and New Pop for instance - weren’t going to steal bread from their mouths. But in 1992, Cocoa Tea and Ninjaman were getting panicky and protectionist over some of the forms which were rubbing against - and in their eyes rubbing out dancehall culture and music. At least, I think that's why they seem to spend most of the track's duration weighing up the merits of soca, hip hop and contemporary R 'n' B in comparison to dancehall and finding them all inferior, both intellectually and as music to dance to. The song could also be read as a rebuke to reggae artists who were incorporating these styles into their music as part of a pursuit for wider mainstream commercial success. A look at the UK/US singles charts over the subsequent years showed that their contemporaries weren't paying any notice to them on the issue either.
I'm also sure that the sound of a couple of dancehall artists decrying other musical forms for diverting attention away from them must have caused some derisive laughter among roots reggae musicians, who had endured the same struggles over the previous decade at the hands of dancehall.
For Diana, with love xxx
Videos courtesy of Puppa Channel and ELO.
No comments:
Post a Comment