NOW VIEWINGReception
HomeJourneyCollectionsStoriesPathsMusic RoomGamesExploreMapDebateNews
Debate & reception

DebateContested

Playing the people's music: broadcast respectability or representation?

One side

Protecting broadcast respectability

The other

Representing the real musical life of the people

What was argued

Two documented positions on colonial-era radio's caution toward Rasta-associated and local popular music: defenders of the policy invoked broadcasting standards and respectability, while critics argued the airwaves failed to represent the actual musical life of the Jamaican people. Neutral framing; no verdict.

The records this concerns

Dermot HusseyPolitical and colonial-era radio bans of Jamaican popular songs (1960s-1970s)Radio Jamaica / RJRJBC

Sources

Jamaica Gleaner archive; David Katz, Solid Foundation

Commentary

"Oh Carolina" and the respectability of Rasta drumming

One side

African/Rasta drumming as cultural affirmation

The other

As disreputable primitivism unfit for radio

When the Folkes Brothers' 1960 single 'Oh Carolina' (produced by Prince Buster) put Count Ossie's Nyabinghi-style Rasta drumming onto a commercial record and Jamaican radio, it became a flashpoint. At a time when Rastafari was criminalized and socially despised, some in the anti-Rasta music establishment and broadcasting rejected the akete drums and chanting as disreputable 'jungle' primitivism tied to the stigmatized burru/kumina lineage; others later argued the record was the first to give the Rastafari movement a measure of mainstream respectability and to bring a suppressed African-derived music into the commercial mainstream. Grounded in the Jamaica Gleaner's 'Music Diaries' column on the drama of 'Oh Carolina' and Heather Augustyn's skabook account.

Read the argument →

All debate & reception →