FM | RETROSPECTIVE
Dancehall
We investigate how Jamaica’s dancehall became an important part of modern pop and hip-hop
© Matthew Wakem / Alamy Stock Photo
Since the 1960s, Jamaican music has consistently punched above its weight on a global scale. From ska to reggae, dub and beyond, the Caribbean island nation with a population of less than three million people has influenced the world.
Much like the evolution of dub from reggae, dancehall began as an offshoot of the dominant roots reggae sound of the late 1960s and early ’70s. As the name suggests, its origins lay firmly in the dance halls of Jamaica, where reggae evolved into a more party-focussed style that emphasised upbeat musical backings for ‘deejays’ (vocalists) to perform over. On the Jamaican musical spectrum, you could say that dancehall sits somewhere between the traditional roots reggae of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, and the dub of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Augustus Pablo. Since dancehall is unabashedly party music, it evolved into its own distinct genre.