That's exactly what the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica has said, effectively banning all songs, on all public media, that make reference to this now popular act in the Dancehall circle. This ruling was announced by Hopeton Dunn, the commission chairman in no uncertain terms as he said,
There shall not be transmitted through radio or television, any recording, live song or music video which promotes the act of 'daggering' or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of 'daggering'.
However, the ban did not just stop at Daggerin (also spelt Daggering), but has been extended to all songs which employs any type of editing techniques to remove expletives and certain lewd content. This ruling no doubt was spurred by the latest Dancehall song to take the nation by storm, Spice and Vibez Kartel, Rampin Shop (see video here). Dunn continued,
There shall not be transmitted through radio or television or cable services, any audio recording, song or music video which employs editing techniques or bleeping of its original lyrical content,
This action by the Broadcasting Commission, is as a result of much criticism from many circles of the local hit, Rampin Shop and other Dancehall songs now hitting our radio waves. The move was also triggered by mounting pressure that they should be more vigilant at policing the nations airwaves to ensure that radio and television stations don't breach the Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations.
The move by the Broadcasting Commission has been welcomed by many in our society, including organizations such as the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) and the Media Association of Jamaica. No doubt other aspects of the society including the churches, Jamaica Teachers Association and schools and any parents will welcome this move also.
I too am in full support of the Broadcasting Commission to ban the promotion of the activity called Daggerin and songs such Rampin Shop which feature an overdose of sexual references and violence. I find the act, will not call it a dance, of Daggerin to be tasteless and totally barbaric. Some may say it's a part of our culture and people should be free to express themselves, but where do we cross the line? I have watched several videos of Daggerin and after the initial amusement, reality sets in as I stare in disbelief that people really behave like this and go out on the street to behave like... basically savages. The so-called dance moves are not just lewd mimicking of extreme sexual acts, but it look outright dangerous!
Our culture is such that most of our songs make references to violence and sex, but which song out there whether Rock, R&B, Rap, Hip Hop, does not do the same? The truth is almost all songs on the radio these days make references to these two primal behaviour of human, however, while some songs merely allude to them, other songs explicitly outline these acts of violence and sexual behaviour. The latter is what I really have a problem with and songs such as Rompin Shop is one such song that explicitly describe the sexual acts between a couple. Such songs are in my view definitely not fit for public airplay. I will even go further to say that I too agree that no song that has to be edited with a "bleep" should be played on our public stations. I believe that songs should be made airworthy and if an artiste has a hit then he needs to make a radio version (clean version) and a CD version (dirty version) to suit each audience. If this was done we wouldn't still be having the embarrassing situation of radio stations having to apologise and discipline disc jockeys for the one or two indecent parts of a song that escaped the bleep.
Stations have to please their audience in order to survive, however pleasing the audience does not mean only playing what a part of the audience likes, but also minimising the content that offends a considerable portion of their general audience. Responsibility in content delivery is even more important when such a large part of the listening ear are the impressionable among us, our teens, our children and those who do not have the mental capability not to act on these corrupting messages. Artistes and radio/television stations as well as the printed media need to be responsible and mindful of their audience and their social responsibility.
However, although I agree with the Broadcasting Commission's move to ban Daggering content and songs that require editing for radio play, I wonder why it took so long? It is their job to police what is good for public broadcast as prescribed by Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations. So why did they have to wait on public outcry and pressure for them to take a step to ban such material? What have they been doing and what are they doing, for my hard earned taxpayer dollars? The Broadcasting Commission need to pull up their socks and this incident really shows them up.
I think I have said quite a mouthful on this topic. So what are your views on this recent move by the Broadcasting Commission? Also you can vote at the bottom of this page.
Reference: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090207/lead/lead1.html
11 commented:
Jooking, dollar wine, quinting... daggering: all differing degrees of more or less the same thing. If you put a ban on one, put a ban on all, lest you be found a hypocrite!
I totally support the move (less room for error if error is not at all permitted, I believe), but censoring is a tricky topic.
We better watch the ppl who banning these things, cause if we let them get trigger-happy, we soon be hearing nothing but classical music. Then we'll all be left wondering, what the bleep??
good move but a bit too late for my liking
yea i was surprised when i was home in bim just how much of those daggering songs got bleeped out on the radio. guess i'm just too accustomed to the unedited mixtapes
I never thought it was fit for airplay but like Ruthibelle i'm more concerned with "who decides what is or isn't fit for airplay".
I also think that our artistes can be more creative and pen suggestive lyrics that merely push the envelope instead of ripping it to shreds. Have you listened to any soca songs lately? Soca artistes are experts at suggestive, ambiguous sexually charged song lyrics.
WOW!!!! .. the topic does generate traffic..lol
@Gussie
You do have a point about the Soca artists, they were suggestive (use your imagination). However they never took it to the level of the "daggerin"(sic) and "Rampin"(sic). This is "in your face" lyrics, and they are not "suggestive".
There is no legal point as it is the "society" which will deem all this acceptable or not.
Walk Good
It's kinda sad that the gov had to ban it, because it shows that there was a pretty high taste level/demand for it...
At least practice the art of double entendre.Show that you are skilled and leave something to the imagination.
Well said Stunner!!DItto! DITTO1
Stunner:
While I approve of the attempt to regulate the airwaves, I don't really like the way the regulation is being carried out.
While removing these particular referents from primetime air feels ok to me, like Ruthibelle I really don't trust the folks in charge to make good decisions for good reasons. I am telling you, if dem brown people mek enough noise, we will all be listening to LOVE FM and paid commercials for the rest of our days!
When decisions are made in this kind of reactionary way, the fallout is always much much bigger than we could anticipate. The underground distribution system just went into overdrive; a now nuff money deh fi mek peddling smut, and the difficulty and inability to regulate that market is going to make things a lot worse for us. We think we have problems with child porn and unsafe sex now, just wait...
I have also been noticing the slippage in the way the conversations are taking place, where lyrics talking explicitly about sex is seen as the problem. I think context does matter. Sure, I don't want dem likkle bwoy pickney dem call DJ whe' can barely clean dem baxide come tell me bout how sex mus' go and feel. Nor do I think our generally information-starved children should be fed more rubbish than they are already. Hence, make it less accessible to them.
But, I am an adult, and I think I am capable of making distinctions between sexually explicit language that is pleasurable and that which is degrading. The problem for me in these songs is not just the description of sex (which should be on adult-only radio anyway) but also the descriptions of the ways in which sex is taking place. I guess I am saying that "Clean" vs. "dirty" are not the only choices in terms of how we come down on this issue about sexuality, and should not be. Some "dirty" stuff is exciting and fun. Rampin shop and daggerin is just violent and stomach turning. And if I was thinking that this is just my biased feeling, watching people dancing "like a war dem a go" to quote BM, is just too much.
Rough sex is not the same as violent sex, but clearly these DJ's can't distinguish, and have managed to communicate as much to an already info-starved public. When back a bruck an what not, come now, me nuh si why mi woudda w'aa deh wid smaddy fi dem come mash me up, let alone get any pleasure from listening or singing about this stuff.
This is not about Jamaicans or race...this is about right and wrong...Im sorry, but Im much more frightened of those slasher rock bands that talk about disfiguring people, being sadistically evil against what is differnt, and glorifying satanism....To me thats a true abomination, where as Hip Hop and Reggae is based on poor people struggling to survive in an overly aggressive place and identifying with there struggle...they just say what they feel they have to and they should...the degrading of women was popular long b4 hip hop and reggae through rock...but who talks about that...violence...well, if thats what u see every day where u live, and if u feel that if u dont speak like u would do the same thing that u saw sumone do, but still knew it was wrong, then it could happen to you, can u really blame them...and the gay thing, well...sum people were raised one way and reLLY dont know any better, the Jamaican cultur is highly against gays and thats just the way it is...can anyone get mad at the Jews for saying if ur not Jewish ur going to hell...or Christianity or Islam for that matter...? its all a matter of opinion, dont ban the music, try to understand the culture, theres more to reggea hip hop and other black music then Bling Bling, shoot em up, and lets all F*ck these B*tches...it just doesnt get mainstream radio play...I am a Jamaican that loves all types of music, I dont promote negativity and I seldom listen to music that tells me that being negative is good...but I must admit that I love sex, drugs and guns in movies....so whats worse...? the 10 highest paid musicians that get promoted to glorify guns, violence, anti gay & degrading of women to the people that want to hear it, tune in to the radio stations, buy tickets to concerts or purchase the CDs ...or the TV and movie makers that promote those very same things but even more graphically as they include imagery and advertising that make it even look better to children and adults alike...actually to everyone that has a TV and watches commercials and movies on them...? If you want to talk about wrong, we should start there...Music is all about self expression, negative or positive, right or wrong...it cant really be judged cause its personal preference...If you dont want to hear it or see it, dont promote or support it...Now, for the people that for what ever reason do support it and promote it, its there choice to subject themselves to it...God gave us choice, and it shouldnt be judged or taken away, cause wheres the freedom and democracy in that!?!
Post a Comment