Manley's 1972 bandwagon: reggae as the sufferers' voice or a politician's prop?

What was argued

Michael Manley's PNP built its 1972 campaign around reggae, adopting Delroy Wilson's 'Better Must Come' as its theme, touring a 'bandwagon' of artists including Max Romeo and the Wailers, and pairing the music with the 'Rod of Correction' Manley said he received from Haile Selassie. Observers have argued this fused reggae's voice-of-the-sufferer authenticity with a genuine political movement for the poor; others read it as co-optation — parties harvesting Rasta symbols and roots songs (Romeo's 'Let the Power Fall', Byles's 'Beat Down Babylon') for electoral advantage while leaving the ghettos' conditions unchanged. Grounded in the Zapruder World essay on reggae and the 1972 election and Jamaica Observer's 'That Manley bandwagon.'.