Electrionic Dance Music

7/28/2019 Electrionic Dance Music

1/22

ELECTRONIC ORATURE: THE DEEJAY'S DISCOVERY

Author(s): Hubert DevonishReviewed work(s):Source: Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1, Reggae Studies (MARCH, 1998), pp. 33-53Published by: Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West IndiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27866164 .Accessed: 27/02/2012 10:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

University of the West Indies and Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies are collaborating

with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social and Economic Studies.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=saliseshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uwihttp://www.jstor.org/stable/27866164?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/27866164?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uwihttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=salises


2/22

Social and Economic Studies47:1 (1998) ISSN: 037-7651

ELECTRONIC DRATURE:THE DEEJAY'S DISCOVERY

Hubert Devgnish

ABSTRACTThis paper traces the role of orature in theemergenceof national languagesand national identities associated with these.The main referencepoints arethe languageof theGreeks of theClassical period and theoriginallyoral worksassociated with them, .e. the liad' and the 'Odyssey'traditionally ttributedtoHomer. The argument is that, ongbefore thewidespread use ofwriting andprint, thedevelopment and consolidation of national identities took placethroughworks oforature.With general use ofwritingand thedevelopment oftheprintingpress with its increased powers of dissemination,written language and literature came to perform this role. The paper is suggesting that, inthe case of Jamaica and its emerging national language, Jamaican, modernelectronic technologieshave done forspeechwhat print has done forwriting,i.e.massively increased thepotential audience foranygiven piece of languagecommunication. This has produced the re-emergence of orature as a means ofprojecting thenational languageand thenational identity. he examplewhichis the focus of paper is theoral art form referred to as Dance Hall and itsperformers, the Deejay.

IFHOMER HAD A CHANCE TO COME BACKAGAINIfHomer had a chance to come back again, he would come back a Jamaicandeejay.Accompanying himselftoa 'ridim'playedon his phorminx or katharis,he would Ijuild' lyrics bout a powerful and fearless 'don' and Helen, hiswoman, the 'gyal wid di wikidis slam'. Menelaus goes to 'foreign* leavingHelen to 'run things'. hemeets Paris, a visitor fromTroy.They fall foreachother.Together, they stripMenelaus' house of itsvaluables, and run off toTroy. On his return, Menelaus is 'rahtid'. He can almost hear them laughingin Troy. He has been 'dissed'. That was something that happened to lesser

men, not to Menelaus, the 'don dadda'. He gathers his 'massive and crew'together. 'Community leaders' come from far and near, each one a 'don' in his

Pp 33-53


3/22

34 SOCIALAND ECONOMIC STUDIES

own area. And with them came their 'posses*. Over hot beer, they decide on acourse of action.This Missing' by theoutsider from roy cannotbe allowed togo unpunished.

The 'posse' of 'posses' prepares for war, the dons and their followersarmed to the teeth.They bear AK47s, M 16s,Uzis and Glocks and weekssupplyof ammunition.They travel toTroy in a fleetof some of the finest'krisaz' ever assembled, Lexuses, Benzes, BMWs, Audis... They open up onTroywith heavy and sustained gunfire. hen, confident in theirsuperiority,theycharge towards the fortified alls. They are greetedwith heavy gunfire

which cuts many of them down. The attack by Menelaus and his posse ofposses is thwarted. Odysseus, a 'hartical don' and the craftiest of those gathered, puts forward a plan. Menelaus and his posse pretend to withdraw indisorder, leavingmany of their finest 'krisaz' behind. In the trunkof eachvehicle is hidden a man.

Paris and thepeople ofTroy are overjoyedat theflight f their ttackers.Tiiey tow thevehicles back intotheirfortress s trophies fwar.That night, stheTrojans sleep, thehiddenmen come out of thevehicles,open thegatesandlet the rest of the posse in. The guns bark, 'Booyaka, Booyaka', as Homer, thedeejay, inviteshis audience to symbolicallyoin in the slaughter. he attackersshoot everything that moves, man, woman, child, even dogs and cats. A specialchant of 'BoomBy By' isreservedbyHomer and his audience forwhen Paris iscornered, captured and executed. Blood everywhere. Troy is put to the torch.The posses of posses departs, each don heading off in his own direction.Behind them, johncrows circle over what remains of Troy.This piece, called 'Iliad', is a hit when Homer performsitat thepopularstage show, 'Sting1. He goes to the recording studio and cuts a record. It is asmash hit. He is invited to perform at almost every stage show, in Jamaica,

New York, London, Toronto and Tokyo. There is soon a demand for more.Homer goes back to the recording studio and cuts another record, a kind ofsequel, on the same Iliad 'ridim', a 'ridim' that every deejay in town is now'riding'.The new piece isentitled the 'Odyssey*.his isabout thecrafty dysseus,and his adventureson his long nd dangerous journey ack home. Eventually,

Odysseus reaches home.He findshis house overrunbymen eatinghis food,drinkinghis rum and whisky,drivinghis Benz and his Pajero and trying osteal his woman, Penelope. Penelope, with a 'Cocoa Cola bottle shape' and avery solid 'Bumper Batty', has a body that every man wants. This crowd ofmen are taking liberties they would not have dreamed of taking had they


4/22

Electronic Orature: 35

thought that Odysseus, 'the one don', was still alive. Odysseus enters in disguise. At the opportune moment, he outs his Ml6 and, to the stacatto accompaniment of 'Booyaka, Booyaka' executes them, one by one, in their drunkenstate. Blood and marrow decorate the walls.

The 'Odyssey', sa smashhit too.To understand the impactwhich DeejayHomer has, one needs tounderstands thecontextwithinwhich all this takingplace. This is a Jamaican state run by an elite whose claim to power is thattheyare able to use English, particularly in itswritten form.English is theofficial languageof thisJamaican state.Although Jamaican is spoken by everyone, it is not generally written. And, as a 'bastard' language variety withno widely known standardised writing system, it is not a fit and proper

medium for formal public communication. The few cranks who try to writeJamaican, particularly if they try to use a standardised spelling for it, aremocked in thepress as foolishpromotersof 'Yahoolish'.

Every state relies for its legitimacy n a sense of nationhood amongst itscitizens. Around the world, this national feeling has been promoted, eversince the inventionof the printingpress, through literary xpression in thenational language. It is by this means that the English came to see themselvesas a distinctnation based on the fact that theyspokeEnglish, the languageofMilton, Chaucer, Shakespeare and theKing JamesVersion of the Bible.The Jamaican state, t the timeof independence in 1962,made English asymbolof thenew national identity twas trying o foster longwith literaryexpression in that language. The founders of independent Jamaica were operating in a world inwhich writing, and more importantly, rint,dominatedpublic languageusage. For them,the fact that thevastmajority of thepopulation spoke, though they did not write, another language, Jamaican, wasir relevant. Literary expression in English was to be the reference point of thenew state.

This is illustratedbyBrathwaite (1984: 28). He refers oan IndependenceAnthology of Jamaican Poetry which came out at the time of Jamaican independence in 1962. He comments on the treatment of Louise Bennett in thisanthology. According to Brathwaite, Bennett, by the time ot Jamaican independence in 1962, had published nine books inJamaicanand had established anational reputation as a performer of her own poetry in the language. Yet, inthe anthology, she does not appear among the poets but at the back of the bookunder the heading 'Miscellaneous'. It is clear that the Jamaican state, from itsinception, tried to foster a national identity around a set of symbols and values


5/22

36 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STUDIES

associated with theEnglish-speakingand,more importantly,nglish-writingelites of the country.The intervention fDeejay Homer alongwith a numberof otherdeejays,would produce for Jamaican a body of orature, i.e. a body of creative spokenlanguage.They would achieve forJamaicanmuch the same kind of languagestandardisation which occurs as a result of a language coming under theinfluence fwriting and print. he work of thedeejayswould serveas a pointof national identification orthat sectorof thepopulationwhich uses Jamaican andwhich has relatively imitedcontrol ofEnglish, either inwritingor inspeech. In the yearswhich follow, the Iliad and theOdyssey in Jamaicanwould give rise to a national identity rooted in popular rather than eliteconsciousness, based on a spoken language, Jamaican, rather than a writtenone, English. In time, this increasingly strong alternative sense of Jamaicannationalism would give rise to a state which represents a mass-based popularidentity.

As it consolidates its power, this state like every other established state,would become rathercoy about the imagesof naked force n which all statepower isultimatelybased. However, perhapsbecause of the explicitlyviolentnature of itsfoundingtraditions s embodied in theoralworks by itsdeejays,this new Jamaica statemight need to go a step further. tmight entirelyeschew thedisplayof guns at official stateceremonies.Visiting heads of statemightbe greetedby an unarmed ceremonialguard, twenty ne ofwhom pointtwofingers f the right and skyward s the large peakers inthebackgroundreproduce the sound of synthetic gunfire.

Looking on at the effectthat he had had,Homer would say to himself,'Done it again'. Providing a reference point for a shared language and identityiswhat his Iliad and hisOdyssey had done inPre-ClassicalGreece. Worksof orature dating back to the period of Mycenaenan Greece between 20001200BC, preserved stories bout theoriginsof theGreeks. In thisperiod, theGreeks developed a complex state system based on trade carried out by apowerful fleet of merchant ships. During the existence ofMycenaenan Greece,three different writing systems were employed. Writing seems to have beenused mainly for commercial purposes. The Greeks of this period, however,had a tradition of heroic epic poetry which was composed and transmittedorally.The epics attributedtoHomer, the Iliad and theOdyssey, are a productof this tradition (Hansen 1978:8, 10).After 1200 BC, thecivilisationcollapsed.Knowledge ofwriting technology and more specifically the use ofMycenaenan writing systems, disappeared


6/22


along with the state system. The Greeks, for several centuries after this collapse, lived in small,humble and isolated communities.Although knowledgeofwritingwas lost,the system f orally transmittingrecords and traditionsremained intact. During this time, a sense of shared identity and commonorigin was preserved. This was achieved through the performance and transmission of the oral epics, the Iliad and theOdyssey. The Iliad tells of theassemblingof a great armyfromthevariousGreeks states to fight heTrojansand the ensuing battle. The Odyssey tells of the experiences of one of thevictorious Greek warriors,Odysseus, who goes throughmany trialson hishomeward journeywhich lasts several years.When he arriveshome, he successfullybattles those who have tried to usurp his home and his wife.The preservationof theseworks of orature over centuriesbybards wholearntthemand transmittedthemorally,was crucial inmaintaining amongsttheGreeks a sense of a shared identity ased on a belief ina common history.This would have been complementedby the influencewhich thepoemswouldhave had at the levelof language.The Iliad and theOdyssey were composedand performed in the Ionic dialect ofGreek (Hansen 1978: 13). Since theywerewidelyperformed cross thewide geographicalarea occupiedby theGreeks,the languageof theseoral poemswould have had the effect fpopularising thisdialect as an oral standard.

The role of performersof oral epic poems inboth thepreservation ofstoriesof origin and in language standardisation is reportedfor theMandekanspeakingpeoples ofWest Africa.They are an ethno-linguistic roup associatedwith the ancientMali empireofWest Africa.According toBird (1970: 148),dialects ofMandekan spoken 800 miles apart havemanaged throughseveralcenturiestomaintain a high level f similarity. e attributesthisto theregularperformance of the Sunjata epic stories of origin by oral poets who use acommon dialect of the languageforthisperformance (Bird 1970: 148,157-8).

Language consciousness is another product of orature. This occurs as aresultof the emergencewithin a communityof the sense that a languagevariety spoken by them is an entity separate and apart from all other language varieties.Let us again use thecase of theSunjata epic of theMandekanspeakers ofWest Africa,with which theGreek epics have often been compared.A strongconsciousness of language identity sdisplayed in theSunjataepic. Here, the importance of language to the identity of the Mandekan speaking peoples is explicitly stated. In the epic, there is reference to those who werepresent atSibi, theplace of thebattlewhich, according to the story, arked thefoundationof theMali empire. It is stated that all the sons ofMali were


7/22


there, ll thosewho say 'N'Ko',1all who speak the clear languageofMali wererepresentedat Sibi' (Niane 1960: 55).Between 900 and 800 BC, as partof thisnew periodof state re)formation,theGreeks borrow and adapt foruse in their wn languagethewriting systemof thePhoenicians.The influence f theGreek oral poetryattributedtoHomerspills over into writing when writing for literary purposes makes its appearance inClassical Greece in the 7th centuryBC. It is at this time that theseorally transmitted picsbecome committedtowriting (Hansen 1978: 8). Theseepic poems at this point become works of literature and are transformed into

models of usage forwritten Greek.

TECHNOLOGISING SPOKEN LANGUAGETHROUGH THEDEVICES OF ORATURE.Language is a system of oral communication designed for speakers and

hearers in face-to-face communication with each other. Put another way, thecanonical situation-of-utterance for language is a spoken exchange betweeninterlocutorswho share the same timeand space (Lyons 1977: 637). It is inthis situation-of-utterance that children in every culture and every society learnnaturally to use language without being taught it.

Language has an obvious advantage over other forms of communicationavailable to humans. It is able to communicate about any topic, and to transmitany message, however complex, about that topic, including messages whichhave never been transmitted before. As a consequence, efforts by humansthrough themillenia to improvetheirability to communicatehave been focussed on extending the scope of languagebeyond the here and thenow.

There are two aspects of theproblem.The spokenword, like the spedarrow, comes not back. Finding a way to make pieces of language communication permanent is, therefore, one task. The second task is that of ensuringthat, once made permanent, such communication can be conveyed to people

who are not present when the original language message is produced. Arudimentary solution to both aspects of the problem is to have someone

memorise the particular piece of language communication. This deals withthe problem of giving the message some permanence. Then, if that persontravels to other places, the message can be repeated to audiences far awayfrom the place where the original communication took place.

1 say' inMandekan.


8/22


The problemwith this solution is that the human memory has limits.There is theproblem of how much thepersonmemorising themessage canrecallwith accuracy.There isalso the issue of how much the eventual recipientsof themessage will themselves e able to recall afterreceiving itfromthemessenger. The use of a variety of mnemonic devices to jog the memory andensure recall of language messages represents the earliest application of technology to language.Poeticmetre andmusic are the specificdevices that Iwillexamine here. It is languagetowhich technologyhas been applied that I, afterOng (1982), will referto as technologised language.

The way technologised oral language works is that restrictions are placedon the language form of themessage. To fitwhat is being said into thisrestrictedmold, someone orallyperformingand improvising n theway hasto have resort to clich?d formswhich fit easily into the frame. From theperspective of the producer of suchwork, this set of prefabricated phrasesconstitutes thebasic buildingblocks for theorallyperformedpoem. From theperspective of the hearer or 'consumer' of thiswork, the tightframeand theclich?d construction which is forced on the composer/performer, are easy toremember. In addition, expressing meaning within a very constrained language framework,is aesthetically pleasing. This adds to the ease and theaccuracywith which thetextcan be remembered.Artificial structureimposedon a piece of spokendiscourse isa formof technology.The Greek oral poems attributed toHomer were structured in just thisway. They were delivered according to a well established rhythmic attern.Traditional Greek poetryworked on the principle of syllable length. herewere twokinds of syllabletype inGreek, long syllablesand shortones. Thebasic rhythmic attern for the Iliad and theOdyssey involvedone long syllablefollowedby two shortones. Also permittedwas a long syllablefollowedbyanother long syllable. No other sequence was allowed. Six such sequences madeup a 'line'. This metre or rhythm iswhat is referred to as a dactylic hexameter(Hansen 1978: 11). It is to thisbeat thatHomer is supposed tohave deliveredhis lyrics acked bymusic which he played on thephorminx orfaharis, aninstrumentresemblingthe lyre Hansen 1978: 22).An extremeexample of the artificial impositionof constraintson a pieceof spoken discourse is provided by traditional oral Somali poetry. Somalipoets work out a word-for-word composition in private. They then eitherrecite it inpublic or teach itto someonewho would recite it. his poetryhasan unusually complex and rigidrhythmic attern.This rigidity nd complexitymake it difficult for the reciterto improviseor otherwise vary from the


9/22


original.The reason is that, t anypoint in thepoetic line,there re few if nywords which thereciter ould substitute ortheoriginalwork andwhich, at thesame time,would bothmake sense and fit therhythmicattern.There are alsorestrictions on what syntactic structures are allowed in this poetry. Only twosyntactic structures are allowed in this poetry out of the hundreds possible innormal speech (Ong 1982: 63-4).

In normal speech, a speaker is capable of producing an infinite numberof well formed sentences. By contrast, in the performance of oral poems thereisa setof restrictionsimposedonwhat ispossible, e.g. (i) the kind of syntacticstructures s intheSomali case, (ii) theneed tofitwhat isbeing said into linesof a particular length, iii) the requirementto conformto artificiallyregularpatterns imposed by the requirementsof rhythm, hyming, lliteration,etc.according to the traditions f thegenre.The result is thatwhat ispossible inthese oral performances isonly a subset ofwhat ispossible in speech.

Music, as we have already noted in relation to the Greek oral poems, isvery often used in combination with oral poetic devices to technologise language. Long prayers, traditional stories, praise poems, etc. are often sung orchantedor performedto theaccompanimentof specificmusic.Ong (1982: 63)cites theJapanese ale of theHeike' as a case inpoint.The narrative ischantedto a musical background. However, some sections of this narrative are sung

without accompaniment from musical instruments. There are, as well, interludes which consist entirely of instrumental music. Apprentices, who begin asyoung children working with an oral master, memorise the narrative and musical accompaniment throughrigorousdrill over severalyears.Ong (1982: 63)suggests that in the ale of theHeike', themusic manages at somepoints tocompletelyfix the text.He argues thatthis is an example ofmusic seeming toassist in achieving close to verbatim recall of an oral narrative.

In technologised language such as we have analysed it, producers of suchbodies of material remember the frame. The memory now only has to differentiate between the possible language formswhich can fit into this frame,rather than the infinite angeofpossible utteranceswhich could otherwise beproduced. The tighterthe frame, the fewer the possible utteranceswhichcould fit into the frame.What the framescreate is a situation inwhich onlya limited number of phrases and structureswill fit.Oral poetry, therefore,comes tobe formulaic, eing produced throughusing and reusing selectionsfrom a restricted set of phrases.The Greek epicoral poems, the liad and theOdyssey attributedtoHomer,represent a case in point. The work of Milman Parry as cited inOng (1982:


10/22


17-28) suggests that these poems were composed almost entirely of formulae.Taking the first, regularly occurring names of characters such as Odysseus,Hector, Athena and Apollo, were constantly used in particular phrases and inrelation to certainverbs.This ensured that theyfitted into the rhythmic atternof the particular line in thepoem.Odysseus, forexample, is constantlydescribed as polymetis 'clever', irrespective of whether his cleverness is relevant to the particular action he is involved in. The reason is that, without theuse of thisadjective, thename 'Odysseus' could not have been easilyworkedinto the rhythmic atternof thepoem (Ong 1982: 58-9).Evidence forviewingoral formulaicdevices as technologycomes in theform of observationsmade byRenfrew (1987: 255). He suggests thatorallytransmittedepics date back to societies inwhich craft and occupational differentiation s takingplace for the firsttime.The categoryof bards and poetswho emerge intheseperiods ismerely one of the craft nd occupational groupswhich are appearing.This canbe seen intheactual textof theGreek oral epic,theOdyssey'. In thispoem, oral performersplay a part in the story ndwhentheyarementioned are classified as public craftsmen, group that includeddoctors and carpenters (Hansen 1978: 23).

A similar such classification exists in other societies and cultures. Onesuch is the 16th centurySoninke state of Jaara inWest Africa, the socialstructure of which has survived to this day. One stratum of the society consistsof craft and occupational groups such as cobblers,blacksmithsand 'peopleofthemouth'. Members of the last group are responsible forpreserving andbroadcasting the oral traditionof theirpatrons (Diawara 1989: 110). A similar kind of classificationexists among the relatedMandekan speaking peopleofWest Africa. Here again, the craft and occupational group of carpenters,basket makers, canoe repairers, leather workers and blacksmiths, etc. includeswithin itbards and specialistsof theword. Some members of this lastgroupspecialise in transmitting the Sunjata epic and other traditional accounts ofthe 13th to late 16th centuryMali empire (deMoraes Farias 1989: 153-4).Oral poets, be theyGreek Bards, Malian specialists of the word orJamaicadeejays, are technologists n the literalrather than just the figurativesense of theword. They apply technologies tobodies of language inorder toovercome the problem of the impermanence of spoken language.

TECHNOLOGISING LANGUAGETHROUGH WRITINGWriting represents a fundamental improvement on oral formulaic devices as amedium for preserving language messages over time and transmitting them


11/22


over distance.As described byCoulmas (1989: 19,35), writing is theengraving or drawing, the scratching or incision of signs representing units of spokenlanguage.As argued byDeFrancis (1989: 56), the aspect of language represented by all writing systems is sound. Thus, writing is not a system of communication inand of itself. ather, it isa form f technology pplied to language.

Writing gives solid, visible, relativelypermanentmaterial form to language. Itwas, at the time of its invention five thousand years ago, the ultimatetechnologycapable of extending the communicativeabilities of languagebeyond the situation of face-to-face interaction. Writing conferred an additionaladvantage on language. Language could now be used as an efficient mediumfor the keeping of records.The basic building blocks of any of the five thousand or so languagesspoken in the world is a small number of recurring units of sound referred toby linguists as phonemes. Alphabetic writing systems use signs to representthe individual phonemes in a language. Each message, no matter how complex,will consistof combinations of thephonemeswithin the language.Thus,all thathas tobe done towrite suchamessage istouse theappropriatesignforeach phoneme in the message. Since, the written signs are used to representphonemes which constantly recur, the written signs themselves end up as recurring elements in the written text.

TECHNOLOGYWRITING LANGUAGETHROUGH PRINTThe limitationwhich existswith writing is that,even though itmanages tofreeze language messages in time, it is not very effective in distributing such

messages to a large audience. The only way that one could read a writtenmessage in the pre-print era was to travel to where the written message waslocated or have that written message sent to one. Where the communicationwas intended simply to involve two people, this was no problem. What, however, about one person wishing to communicate with a large body of persons?

Moving a written message from one person to the other or having everyonetravel towhere the written text is located, would have been cumbersome. Thealternative would have been to laboriously make copies of documents byhand, each ofwhich could thenbe sent to a potential recipient. his situationwould have placed and did indeed place a severe restriction n the role ofwriting as a medium of mass communication.The emergence of theGutenberg printing press inmid-15th centuryEurope provided a solution to the problem of a mass readership for written


12/22


material. The printingpress allowed largenumbers of identical copies of awritten work to be produced. There could be as many copies as there werepeople willing to read the work. A single writer could now communicate withthousands, and even hundreds of thousands.The technologiesassociated with themid-15th centuryGutenberg pressin Europe were significant. Firstly, there was the use of letters cast in separatepieces of metal type.Replicating of thismetal type frommolds meant thateach individualpiece ofmetal type in a given type face,was identical to anyof thehundreds of other casting of the same letter. given letter in printcould be produced by any of hundreds of identical casting from the samemold.Words could be composed by using individual letterswhich would beassembled together n a plate.Making a plate tobe used forprinting involvedall of the techniques of the assembly line.Replaceable parts in the form ofindividual pieces of type representing in each case a particular letter, wereassembled togethertoproduce identicalobjects,printedwords. Each printedversion of the sameword in the same type facewould be identical to anyother. It was this assembly line principle which, three centuries later, came tobe employed inmanufacture during the IndustrialRevolution (Ong 1982:118-9).

This entire process placed the printed word at the centre of amanufacturingprocess. Extremely sophisticatedtechnologywas being employed inprinting.This led to a heavy dependence on capital. In addition, given theheavyexpense of preparing for the actual print reproduction of a text, the larger thenumber of copies produced, the cheaper theper unit cost.This led to a driveformass production of theprintedword and thedevelopment of consumerdemand for it.Written languagehad been transformed y print into a commodity. Mass production and the accompanying stimulation of mass consumptionof commoditiesother than theprintedword onlybecame generalwith thearrivalof the IndustrialRevolution. In fact,Gaur (1984: 203) argues that theEuropean printingrevolutionrepresentedthe IndustrialRevolution casting itsshadow three centuries in advance.

It isnot surprisingthat the reproductionofwritten language involvedthe earliest application ofmany of the featuresof industrialproduction. Infact, the mass production and consumption of ideas, knowledge and information, is a necessary precursor to the mass production and consumption ofgoods and services. For the technological advances associated with the IndustrialRevolution to takeplace, thereneeded tobe a period of rapid spread ofideas and knowledge. Language towhich writing technologyhad been ap


13/22


plied, andwhich in turnhad printingtechnology pplied to it, as themediumbywhich thesemessages reached all sections of thepotentialmarket.

Print triggered the emergence of literatures in European vernacular languages. Literature, like technologised orality, tended to build language consciousness, i.e. an awareness of the distinction between what is supposed tobe the languageof the group and thatwhich is the languageof others.And,also as with technologised orality, shared bodies of creative language, thistime inprint,tend tobecome regardedas linguisticmodels for ll members ofthe speech community. This leads to language standardisation amongst people

who consider themselves users of a common language (Eisenstein 1981: 61).An awareness of difference relative to outsiders and of thatwhich issharedwithin the group is the hallmark of a developing national consciousness. Therefore, literature facilitated by print becomes a cornerstone in thedevelopment of national consciousness. It is, for example, literature in printwhich facilitated the emergence of an English nation defining itself s consisting fpeoplewho speak the languageofMilton, Shakespeare,Chaucer andtheKing JamesVersion of theBible. A similarprocess of national formationtook place inSpain at the end of the 15thcentury. ased on thedevelopmentof vernacular literature in print, Castilian emerged as the national and officiallanguageof Spain, displacingLatin (Illich 1981: 37-47).The print revolution ispossibly themost significant technologicaldevelopment of thismillennium. Ithas resulted in themass production ofwrittenlanguage.The state,particularlyas ithas evolved since themid-15th centurydevelopment of theprintingpress, reliesheavily onwritten and printed language for its existence. The existing Jamaican state is no exception. It operates English as the sole official language, and the only language inwhichwritten records are kept. And the elite version of the Jamaica national identity nwhich thisstate isbased has as itsreference oint literature nEnglish,albeit literature produced by Jamaicans.

THE NEW JAMAICAN RATUREDeejay/dance hall is an art form involvingthedeliveryof spoken languageto a predetermined rhythmic pattern established by an accompanying recordedbass and rhythm sound track. The rhythmic background serves to constrainthe text. he languageproduced, in addition to fitting heoral poetic framework establishedby thegenreand theparticularpiece,must fit intothe framesetby thebass and rhythm rack. o raid di ridim 'ride the rhythm', hich is


14/22


what thedeejay does, is todeliver lyrics ithin the rhythmic ramesetby thebass and rhythm rack. t isan imagewhich, inpart at least,derives fromthedisc jockeyoriginsof thedeejay.The disc jockeyturneddeejay rides the rhythmon the sound track of a disc.The deejay/dance hall piece also possesses an internal structure which

complementsthe structure aiddown by therhythmicacking.There isrhyme,thenumber of syllablesper line, thenumber of linesper verse, etc.Deejaysoftenuse thephrase biHriks*build yrics' odescribe theprocessbywhich lyricsare composed. The imageof 'building', suggest,isonewhich impliestheuseof oral formulaicdevices. The act of building isone inwhich one brings together already existing component parts to produce an overall structure.There isa requirement f a fixed rhythmicattern for poetic 'line', line'being an inappropriate term for an oral genre such as this. For the Jamaicandeejay pieces Ihave studied,notablyBuju Banton's 'Massa God World' whichis transcribed below, there are four prominent or stressed syllables per 'line'.To indicateprominence in the transcription, have marked thevowel of eachprominent syllable by an accent.

The entirepoetic structureis constructedaround the last syllable in the'line'.This syllable ismarked tobear the fourthprominence in the 'line' andto rhymewith the last syllableof a preceding or following 'line'.The rhymegives the final syllablesan extra saliencewhich is important to thewholesystemsince the rhyming yllable functions as a boundary marker between'lines'.

The preceding three prominences in the 'line' are assigned backwardsfrom this final prominence. They are spaced based on common principles.Either it is everyother preceding syllable,every thirdpreceding syllableorevery fourthpreceding syllable. he only constraint,which isonly applied onsome occasions, is that the syllable on which one of the three non-final prominences is placed must be able to bear prominence in normal speech. This isthe basic pattern. Quite often, however, as can be seen even in the Buju Bantontextbelow, the spacingof prominence is sometimesdeliberatelyvariedwithinthe same line for effect.

What distinguishes theword bearing the fourthprominence in a 'line'fromthatof thepreceding three is the rhyme. t should be noted that,unlikein English poetry, the location of the rhyme is not determined by the location

of word stress. Thus, in English, for a rhyme to exist in any pair of words, allsoundsmust be identicalfrom thevowel of thestressed/prominentsyllableupto the end of the word. Thus, 'know', 'crow' and 'below', all of which stress the


15/22


final syllable, would rhyme since the shared sequence starts from the vowel ofthe stressed syllable. The shared sequence would be '-ow'. This is also true foritems with stress on the penultimate syllables as in a pair such as 'recorder' and'order', sharing 'order' and 'collector' and 'protector' sharing '-ector'. However,'brother' and 'father' would not rhyme since the sequences starting with the

vowel of the stressed syllable in each word is 'other' and '-ather'.These items borrowed into Jamaican, assign prominence in normal speech

to the same syllable as in English. Of the '-er' and '-or' ending items above,every one of the equivalent items in Jamaican, 'rikaada', 'aada', 'kalekta','protekta', 'breda' and 'faada' are potentially able to rhyme with all the others.In the poetic structures used by deejays, the requirements for rhyming are thefollowing. rovided that, na pair ofwords, the vowel of the final syllable ndany following consonants are the same, they are treated as able to rhyme.

In relation to final consonants in rhymes, we need to define 'same'. 'Same'here does not mean absolutley identical. Rather it covers cases in which theconsonants involved share identical phonological feature such as nasality. Thiscan alsobe seen inthedeejay/dance lyricsfBuju Banton's 'MassaGodWorld'transcribed below. Here, there are rhymes which consist of identical vowelsfollowed by consonants which have similar but not identical phonological features, e.g. n, m, ng in the text below. These are all consonants which have acommon feature, the fact that they are nasal. This makes them sound alike andcauses them to take part in feature rhymes.

It is often the case that an entire deejay/dance hall piece operates asingle rhyme. In the Buju Banton transcription, two related rhymes are involved. The first is o+Nasai, for the first four lines and the last eight.Thesecond is e+Nasal forthe inbetweeneight lines. hus, even thoughthere isadeviation from the tendency to operate a single rhyme throughout, the common nasality in the two sets of rhymes makes them very similar to each other.

hav m?rsiSom?di pl?iz...Tel mi n?u ?u massa g?ad worl a r?nP?t diwaar a b?k an priez g?ad yami s?nTel mi n?u ?u pupa Jiiz?sworl a r?nMek wi k?m tuged?kaa di f?ada suun k?mDier w?z a bigining so dierm?s bii ?nLet os b?l a beta niem farowa gr?nchiljr?nAn l?k inawi ?art an siw? wi kyanm?nWier f?ud izkons?rn dier ?za prabl?mUman ky?an fain f?ud fig?di chiljr?n


16/22


Wail di richman hav di ch?kinbak a f?id i daag d?mBot wuo ?o b?i an tud?mH? huu r?idzagens puor piipl shal p?rish inadi ?nTel mi n?u ?u maasa g?adworl a r?nP?t diwaar a b?k an priez g?ad yami s?nmi waang n?o hou pupa Jiiz?sworl a r?nmek wi k?m tuged?kaa di f?ada suun k?mChruu di p?our kyaan afuorddi nalij d?m no getnonDi richman hav di d?laz an no w?ang giwi s?mBragaduoshos an bu?osi taak ?m fling d?ngA pierw?n nainti ?iBenz ?mbring d?ng('Massa God World',

Buju Banton, 1992)The last syllable in each line' is central to the entire structureof the

piece. It serves as a reference point for the assignment of the other three prominences within the same line'. It also serves to establish and maintain therelationship etween theparticular line' and theother 'lines' in the text. hissecond function isachieved throughbeing the syllable towhich rhyme isassigned.Rhyme in thedeejay genre serves to (i) demarcate the ends of 'lines',(ii) mark syllableswhich are going to correspond to the fourthbeat in thebackground rhythm,iii) give unity to the 'lines'which make up the textbymaking them sound partlyalike.An additional featureof how deejays proceed to bil liriksis theiruse ofclich?swhich are employed to fillout thepoetic line. he lyrics f dance hallpieces are filledwith oral formulaesuch as 'Jompn shakout', 'Mi kom fi ramdaans haal', 'If yu api an yu lov i, ...', etc. These are either used tomaintain arhyming atternwhich has alreadybeen setup or to fill inmaterial ina lineforwhich the rhyming yllablehas alreadybeen determined.

ELECTRONIC ORATURE: THE DEEJAY'S DISCOVERYThe development of electronic sound recording technologies represents asolution to the problem of the impermanence of speech. Sound recordings arenow able to freezethe spokenword in time,performing role similar to thatplayed by writing. Sound recordings, however, involve a record of the actualphysical sounds produced and these can be heard when the recording isplayed back. Writing technology, on the other hand, works by recording anabstraction from the spoken message, inwhich the language message is represented through its individual sound units. However, sound recording on its


17/22


own, likewritingwithout print,has severe limits n itsabilityto reachamassaudience.

Other 20th centurytechnologieshave come to therescue.Through radiobroadcasting, it isnow possible forpeople separatedby space to receive thesame spoken language message at the same time. This has overcome thelimitations mposed on speechby space.When itemployssound recordings,radiobroadcasting does for recorded speechwhat theprintingpress did for

writing, i.e. itmakes a single recorded message available to a mass audience.Technologies for the mass reproduction of sound recordings o cheap and

portable media, e.g. gramophone records, CDs, cassette tapes, etc., have alsohad an effect imilarto thatwhich print technologyhas had on writing.Themass production of copies of gramophone records, CDs, cassette tapes, etc. hasresulted in the industrialisation of sound recording production, an important element of which represents spoken language. The electronic broadcastmedia have had the effectofmaking sound recordings available formassconsumption.Modern Jamaica popular music as it began in the 1950s was anindustrialised music. It started as a form of import substitution. Rival operatorsof sound systems hich played amplified recordedmusic at dances wereon theconstant lookout formusic whichwas exclusive to their sound system.The predominant formof recordedmusic played during thisperiodwas USrhythm nd blues. Records owned exclusivelyby a particular Jamaica soundsystem were used as a drawing card to attract patrons to dances, and away fromdances at which rival sound systems would play. Eventually, however, this questfor exclusivity proved fruitlesswhen dealing with a commodity such asgramophone records which were mass produced and intended formass distribution. The Jamaican sound system operators, therefore, resort to using Jamaican musicians to produce their own 'one of a kind' music, in the form of'specials' recorded on disc exclusively for a particular sound system. Many ofthese 'specials'would include lyrics raising the sound system orwhich ithad

been created. From this beginning, sound system operators expanded operations, ecoming producers of recordsof sale to the local public.They were thepioneers of theJamaicanrecording ndustry. nitially, hismusic directlymimicked the styleof themusic on the imported records.Gradually, however, itevolved a styleand rhythmf itsown, eventuallydeveloping into thegenresknow as ska, rock steady and reggae.Even though the language of the singinggraduallydrifted away fromthat which one would expect on a US rhythm and blues recording, English


18/22


remained the dominant language of Jamaican music right into the reggae era.This is not to suggest that Jamaican was entirely excluded. The choruses ofmany songs would often be in Jamaican and some songs were performed entirely in Jamaican. Nevertheless, Jamaican was the subordinate language usedin themusic, employed onlywhen, for the sake of humour, directness orcultural appropriateness, English would not be appropriate.

Modern Jamaica music began its life as a creature of the recording studio,as theepitomeof an industrialmusic. This facthad an impacton theway thatit reached itsconsuming public. It first reached itsmass audience primarilythroughgramophone recordsbeing playedwith amplification tdances and inother public places, as well as throughbeing played on radio stations. Itwasusually aftergainingpopularity throughthesemedia that themusic came tobeperformed by singersand bands before live audiences.There appeared systems f sound amplificationwhich allowed both therecordedmusic and thedisc jockeypresenting ittobe heard at the same time.By thebeginningof the 1970s, thepracticedeveloped atdances fordisc jockeystodo livetalking improvisations gainst thebackground of recordedmusic. Tofacilitatethis,the recordingstudiosbegan toproduce dub sides, reverse sidesof 45 rpmrecordswith only thebass and rhythm racksof themusic. Againstthismusical background,deejays as theycame tobe called,would deliver improvised lyrics to live audiences. These lyrics were predominantly in Jamaican.Over time a new genre developed, known variously over the years as dub,rockers,deejay and dance hall.In the early period of this genre, aftermultiple presentations in thedance hall to live audiences, particular deejay pieces would themselvesbecome theobject of recording technology. he recordingwould take the formof thedeejay delivering lyrics gainst thebackground of an already recordedbass and rhythm track. This recorded performance would eventually reach amass audience through cassette tapes, gramophone and compact disc records,the radio and most recently through music videos screened on television. Bythe 1980s, deejays had moved away from theirorigins as presenters of recordedmusic. They had become performingand recordingartistes in theirown right.In thedeejay/dance hall genrewhich emerged, thebackground accompaniment, the 'ridim', is often identical for several pieces performed by different artistes. The 'ridims' have become very simple and are often simply artificially produced by synthesisers. As many as 100 pieces are reported to havebeen recorded on a singleVidim'. Clearly, themusical form could hardly be


19/22


the central elementof thisgenre.The focusof thegenre ison the lyrics.hatwhich is different fromone piece to another is the lyrics nd the styleofdeliveryof those lyrics. he musical backing is simply medium forhelpingto convey the language form and the message created by the deejay.A frequentcriticism fdeejay/dance hall genre is that it isnotmusic atall. Or, expressed in a different way, much of deejay/dance hall is closer tothe speech end of the continuum which exists between speech, at one extreme, nd song at the other (Zumthor 1990: 142). The rhythmsre simpleand repetitive and the deejays in their delivery are well nigh monotonous inthe musical sense. They often use a limited range of notes, two or three atmost. If thebackgroundmusic isbasic and clich?d,and the 'singing*nvolvesvery little variation in the notes used, then, I argue, one may not be dealingwith a genrewhich even pretends to be operatingwith the framework festablished European-influenced 'international' norms about what constitutesmusic.

What the deejays have done, of course, is to rediscover the orality knownto the pre-Classical Greeks or the Mandekan speakers of the Mali empire. Butthat isnot all. They have discovered that the new technologies of sound recordingandmass reproductionof those recordings, hen added to the traditionaltechnologiesof orality, could produce a new and powerfulmedium within

which spoken language can operate. Thus, multiple copies of recordings of orallanguage performances in Jamaican, in the main unwritten language, could beproduced and spread to a wide audience. This discovery was occurring at atime which coincided with a newly emerging mass-based national sentiment.Linked to this was a language consciousness associated with the mass language,Jamaican.The conditionswere rightforthedeejaymaterial toplay thesame role in state formation and the development of language and nationalconsciousness, as orality had played inmany pre-modern statesThe oral material produced by thedeejays,predominantly inJamaican, isin fact fostering language consciousness. It is, in addition, bringing aboutstandardisationwithin the language. It is also becoming a focal point forthedevelopment of a national identity, lbeit one which isquite distinct fromthatbeing promoted by the existingJamaican state.The deejaysmay be preparing theway for world inwhich the spokenword, thistimeelectronicallyenhanced, is again the dominant medium for constructing linguistic andnational consciousness and administering the state structures to which theseoften give rise.The industrialisationof sound productionworld wide has primarily in


20/22


volved music. The special circumstances of Jamaica and, arguably of people ofAfrican origin in theUSA via rap, have precipitated the linkagebetweentraditional technologies of orature and the new electronic mass productionand reproduction technologies for sound. This kind of innovation was alwaysunlikely to have come from cultures which were transmitted by languages inwhich writing and print were dominant. The Jamaican deejay's discoverymeans that cultures in which there are languages without a widely knownand used writing system, now have the opportunity for a new lease on life.Language standardisation across large geographical areas becomes possibleusing oral models of the language and without any resort to writing andprint. A sense of sharing a common identity can also be achieved by thesemeans. A national and official language may now emerge skipping the stage ofwriting.The effectwhich theprintingpress had on writing and vernacular languages and cultures inEurope is likely o replicateitself n theeffect hich themass production and dissemination of sound recordings will have on nonliterate cultures and communities. Eventually, the role of audio-technologies inenhancing the power and importanceof speechwill have the same kind ofeffect n writing and print, thatprinthad on oral language.Spoken languagecomes naturally to all humans who do not have a speech related impairment.By contrast, written language needs to be taught. Where both written language and spoken languagehave equal power, spoken language is likely obepreferredtowriting.Therefore,writing and printingwill,with thepassage oftime,eventuallybecome technologies existingon the fringesof speech in itsnewly technologised electronic mode.I suggest that thepopularity of modern Jamaicanmusic theworld over,notably deejay/dance hall, is at least in part triggeredby an unconsciousrecognition of its pioneering role in constructing a language and nationalconsciousness around speech rather than writing. The fact that the genre ispopular even in highly literate societies, e.g.Western Europe, Japan, USA, etc.,is significant. he popularity of deejay/dance hall inhighly literatesocietiessimply indicates that even among literates,there is a longingfora mediumwhich would facilitate themass transmissionof spoken rather than writtencreative languagematerial. This is thegiftwhich Jamaicandeejay/dance hallgenre has given theworld.CONCLUSIONThe new orality which deejay/dance hall represents, returns to traditional


21/22


oral formulaicdevices. This isdone, however,with a novel twist. he musicalbacking, the 'ridim',which is also formulaic,may be generated electronically.The entire performance ismanipulated electronically. Finally, the end productis transmitted to the market in one electronic form or the other. Deejay/dancehall is a new, electronically transmitted orality. It is producing a language consciousness and a national identity, neither of which relies for its existence onthat left-over technology from the 15th century, the printing press.

Homer, the deejay, has hung up his lyre three thousand years now. Whatmakes him decide to come back again is not the fact that a new generationhas rediscovered theuse of orality innation and statebuilding. It is the factthat the new technologies now give the oral poet awesome powers. The oralpoet can reach millions of people by one broadcast or a single sound recording.This mass audience can be made to laugh together, ry together, nd to feelthat theybelong together in the same community,the same nation.This isaonce in a three thousand year experience. And, as Homer reaches for his lyre,he chants,

Av morsi...Gi m? di Ilyad ridim,mi dis a wiil an t?n,Unu klierout di wie, Diijie Horner a k?m!

REFERENCESRanton, Buju. 1992. Massa God World (song lyrics), Kingston.Baird, C. 1970. The Development of Mandekan (Mading): A study in the role of

extra-linguistic factors in linguistic change', in Dalby, D. (ed.) Language andHistory inAfrica. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London.

Brathwaite, E. 1984. History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language inAnglophone Caribbean Poetry, New Beacon, London.

Coulmas, C. 1989. The Writing Systems of theWorld, Basil Blackwell, London.deMoraes Farias, 1989. 'Pilgrimages to "pagan" Mecca inMandekan stories of origin

reported from Mali and Guinea-Conakry', in Barber, K. & de Moraes Farias(eds.) Discourse and Its Disguises: The Interpretation of African Oral Texts,

Centre forWest African Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham University African Studies Series No. 1,Birmingham, pp. 152-170.

DeFrancis, J. 1989. Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness ofWriting Systems. Mouton


22/22


Publishers, The Hague.Diawara, M. 1989. 'Women, servitude and history: The oral historical traditions of

women of servile condition in the kingdom of Jaara (Mali) from the fifteenthcentury to themid-nineteenth century', inBarber, K. & P. de Moraes Farias (eds.)Discourse and ItsDisguises: The Interpretation of African Oral Texts Centre forWest African Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham University African Studies Series No. 1,Birmingham, pp. 109-137.

Eisenstein, E. 1981. 'Some conjectures about the impact of printing on western societyand thought: A preliminary report', inGraff, H. (ed.) Literacy and Social Development in theWest: A Reader, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 5368.

Gaur, A. 1984. A History ofWriting, The British Library, London.Hansen, W. 1978. 'Homeric epics and oral poetry', inOinas, F. Heroic Epic and Saga:

An Introduction to the Worlds Great Folk Epics, Indiana University Press,Bloomington, pp. 7-26.

lllich, I. 1981. Shadow Work, Marion Boyars, Boston.Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics. Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Niane, D. 1965. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Longman, London.Ong, W. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of theWord. Methuen, Lon

don.Renfrew, C. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Pen

guin, London.Zumthor, P. 1990. Oral Poetry: An Introduction. University of Minnesota Press,

Minneapolis.

Electrionic Dance Music

Documents

Transcript of Electrionic Dance Music