NOW VIEWINGReception
Debate & reception

DebateContested

Should the academy study dancehall?

One side

Scholarship validating a maligned folk expression

The other

'elevating vulgarity' critique

What was argued

A neutral account of the debate sparked by dancehall scholarship: academic study is defended as overdue validation of a maligned folk expression, and criticised by some as 'elevating vulgarity'. The atlas records the disagreement without endorsing either view.

The records this concerns

Sources

Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood; Small Axe / sx salon; Jamaica Gleaner/Observer commentary