Embodied minstrelsy, racialization and redemption in reggae

Abstract

This article is a case study1 of a local reggae DJ (DJ Derek) lauded for transgressing musical and ethnic boundaries and produced through discourses of racialized authenticity as flexible and heroic. While DJ Derek’s ethnically stylized performance could be construed as embodied minstrelsy, other aspects of his musical capital were equally significant in the localized context and were drawn into a wider dialogue of sustainability and collective belonging defined by Caribbean migrants. I argue that ambiguous cultural figures such as Derek have an organic, productive role within local music cultures, positioned at intergenerational moments in the process of identification and belonging for ethnically diverse audiences/producers and in this case where the cultural geography of music tastes are becoming embedded within a complex set of relations among local, national and transnational cultures. It is therefore analytically instructive to examine how racist, racializing and redemptive elements intersect to produce authentically syncretic music cultures and sustain transnational identifications and belonging.

Development Countermeasures for the Integration of Local Musical Cultural Elements into Piano Performance and Education under the Perspective of the Internet

“…In piano teaching, teachers should guide students to learn more piano works with elements of local music and culture, which not only applies to local students but also plays a significant role in cultivating students' love for their own culture as well as national spirit. Literature [10] affirms the influence of Derek on local music culture, which makes it possible to keep music culture and national identity from being eroded in the process of complex cultural intermingling. Literature [11], based on empirical methods, clarified the value elements of intangible heritage, including national emotion, non-legacy technology, and non-legacy structural elements, and the national emotion embedded in non-legacy is the most important value element, which is conducive to the promotion of localized elements of music creation and promotion.…”

Making space: Investigating the diversity conundrum for British music festivals

“…Duffy (2005) highlights similar anxieties surrounding the differentially perceived 'inauthenticity' of music 'appropriation' within a multicultural festival space that is contingent upon the ethnic background of the performer. However, the comment above reifies the relationship between ethnic identities and music by portraying 'real' reggae as essentialist expressions of (Black) Jamaican artists and excludes hybrid forms or, as Duffy (2005) suggests 'spatialized identity' (p. 689), that challenge those fixed notions of 'authenticity' associated with racialised bodies (Haynes, 2019).…”

“…This reflects how a positive recognition of difference provides a moral impetus to be inclusive, signifying the transformation of social consciousness -that 'diversity is good' (Vertovec, 2012, p. 307). It is also important to acknowledge how Bristol as a place has shaped the response as it implies a recognition of its dominant representation as a role model for diversity (Haynes, 2019). The festival is conceived by the producers as an open and non-discriminatory space.…”

“…In addition, the LSTD festival producers also emphasise the importance of providing a platform for diverse local talent (DJs, musicians and promoters) in how they conceive the festival space thus enabling 'a celebration, bringing everybody together [from] the Bristol music scene' (LSTD03). For LSTD, however, the local Bristol festival-goer and the city as a whole are also portrayed as very critical and discerning in their taste, reflecting the way in which Bristol's music scene tends to be narrated as cutting edge and ethnically diverse (Haynes, 2019).…”

“…It is located within England's south-west region where many festivals take place, including Glastonbury. While Bristol's music culture developed a reputation for a dynamic, ethnically diverse and culturally progressive scene from the 1990s (Haynes, 2019), according to Hyder (2014), it is a space for both culturally syncretic influences and parallel cultures that accommodate specific ethnoracial communities. The diverse music culture that continues to develop through both processes of syncretism and separation takes place in a city which, as mentioned above, has historically complex social and political relations around race due to the historical legacy of its entanglement in the slavetrade.…”