Protestant vibrations? Reggae, Rastafari, and conscious Evangelicals

Abstract

The globalisation of reggae continues to engender a wide range of highly poignant re-inscriptions and re-interpretations of reggae's sound and of Rastafarian thought. One of the most compelling of these has been the negotiation of Rastafarian and Christian ideologies within the context of Protestant reggae bands and artists. The application of Rastafarian thought, dress and language to the evangelical concerns of Protestants – at times paradoxical, at others ingenious – signals an important moment of inter-religious contact that opens a window onto the complexities and multiple meanings that attach to music and to religious systems as they travel between the local and the global. This essay considers music by Christafari (United States), Sherwin Gardner (Trinidad and Tobago), and Stitchie (Jamaica), and considers questions related to the parallel globalisation of reggae and Rastafari. It does this by interrogating the extent to which authenticity, positionality, and religious context inform the use of and interpretation of Rastafari symbols within gospel reggae. In so doing, I introduce a concept that I call the negotiation of proximity, and offer some reflections on the ways that the Rastafari elements within gospel reggae might be understood in new, global (and newly localised) contexts.

Listening to Intergalactic Sounds – Articulation of Rastafarian Livity in Finnish Roots Reggae Sound System Performances

“…Reckord 1998. ) Similarly, Timothy Rommen has observed that the actual spiritual practices of Rastafarian religious communities, such as Nyabinghi rituals, seem to have developed fairly independently from reggae as popular music (Rommen 2006;compare with Savihinsky 1994). As Jahvice commented, the link between roots reggae sound system performances and the Rastafarian movement exists mainly because most of the vocal artists in the roots reggae genre identify publicly as Rastafarians, and in the words of Jahvice 'promote their livity' in their lyrics.…”

“…Generally, these Finnish reggae lyrics were not blended with Rastafarian dread talk, but the two indexical orders were kept separate. This indicates that it is easier to adapt the musical structure of bass-heavy dub to local club culture practices than to translate the meanings of its lyrics in Rastafarian language into Finnish (See also Rommen 2006; cf. Pollard 2000, 96-108).…”

“…Religious themes derived from the Rastafarian movement have been instrumental in reggae music since its breakthrough on the world music markets in the 1970s. The relationship between Rastafari and reggae, and the localizations of Rastafari outside of Jamaica, have since then been subject to intense academic attention (see for example Hebdige 1979, 30-45;Cashmore 1982;Savihinsky 1994;Gilroy 1995, 153-222;Van Dijk 1998;Rommen 2006;Sterling 2010;Äystö 2012). This article contributes to this theoretical discussion by offering a perspective on the localizations of Rastafarian identities in popular music performances in the Finnish context.…”

Respeitem meus cabelos, brancos: música, política e identidade negra

“…Surgido na Jamaica no final dos anos 1960 a partir de gradativas alterações no ska e no rock steady, o reggae fixa-se no imaginário internacional a partir de meados da década de 1970, sobretudo através da obra de Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley e seu grupo, The Wailers (Rommen, 2006). A internacionalização do reggae espalha por vários cantos do mundo uma mensagem de ação política de valorização da identidade negra, moldando um universo comum de referências atravessadas pelas ideias de luta contra a dominação e exploração.…”

Introduction to a Forum on Religion, Popular Music, and Globalization

“…The study of the contemporary Christian music industry and its music has been a focal point for some (Brown 2004; Gow 1999; Howard and Streck 2004; Viljoen 2006; Young 2005), as has the rise of worship music and the ways in which this music has influenced the Christian music industry and practices in evangelical communities, especially in the United States (Nekola 2005; Lubken 2005). Some ethnomusicologists have explored popular music as an integral part of newer religious and cultural communities, such as the Kwaya community of Tanzania (Barz 2003), the Five Percent Nation offshoot of the Nation of Islam (Miyakawa 2005), and the emergent mix of Protestantism and Rastafari in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States (Rommen 2006). In my own studies of Muslim rap and Bhangra music, I have been interested in ideological linkages between nation, religion, economy, and practices of self‐identification through commodified goods (Clark 2007).…”