The Postcolonial Complexities of Black Taste in Jamaican Rock Music

Abstract

Reggae and dancehall represent popular tastes in Jamaica. Popular tastes in music were manufactured from ideas about Black authenticity. Black nationalist agendas maintained that authentic Jamaican music be tied to the colonial experiences of the enslaved and a continued resistance to Western imperialism through the rejection of foreign ideals. As a result of the rock scene adopting cosmopolitan tastes, the public assigned local rock music outside of the “Black” Jamaican experience. However, to secure their distinction as unique as well as Jamaican, rock members rebelled against mainstream tastes by adopting foreign styles as well as utilised Othering techniques to imitate Black scripts. Consequently, the mimicry of foreign and Jamaican tastes exemplified postcolonial performances of an assumed “ideal” type.

Keywords: Jamaica, popular taste, rock music scene, Black nationalist, mimicry