Dancehall
Dancehall is a type of Jamaican reggae which developed in the early 1970s. The style is characterized by a DJ singing and rapping or toasting over raw and danceable reggae music (riddims). Many of the lyrics in the early dancehall were crude and "slack", though in the late 1990s, this changed as many artists converted to Rastafarianism and changed their lyrical focus to "conscious". Various varieties of dancehall achieved some crossover success outside of Jamaica during the mid- to late-1990s. Also some Dancehall-tunes (voiced riddims) become popular during the summer of 2003, especially Sean Paul's Get Busy.
Bibliography
- Stolzoff, Norman C.: Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica. Durham, London: Duke University Press 2000. ISBN 0-8223-2478-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-8232-2514-4 (paperback)
