Editorial

Artistic Interpretation. Its Impact On Gun Culture In Societies Including Toronto And Kingston.

February 9, 2021 | Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

This perspective is influenced by an interview that took place on a radio show regarding the impact that certain gun lyrics has on crime wave.  Especially crimes with the gun as the most popular choice weapon.  This epidemic of violence is unfolding in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as it is it Kingston, Jamaica, W. I. not to be confused with Kingston in Ontario.

Artistic Influences The artistes are writing and putting on paper their life experiences.  Gun culture is part of their life experience. Creative Dancer Bogle and even record producers are gunned down in Kingston, Jamaica.  They are seen as folk heroes when they have “burst” aka made it big.  Winston Williams, host of “On Stage,” a popular internationally acclaimed entertainment TV show aired on Saturday nights on CVM TV in Jamaica is on to something when he agreed that the lyrics expressed in these songs are real life experiences.

Tipper Hype is a noted artiste, is also correct. The area Don is a folk hero.  These Dons are the enforcers on behalf of the politicians. We are talking about state power. And the pursuit of same.  These DJs now handling a lot of cash. Money is the root of all evil.

There has been an agreement that lyrics in these songs are very impacting on poorly or under developed minds.  These are very impressionable minds. Very gullible one may say.  They are in many cases supported by these DJs or rather Sing Js.  Writers and social commentators draw their inspiration and material from the events as they unfold before their eyes. This is only natural.

For example Charles Dickens wrote in Tales of Two Cities, the events that were unfolding on the world scene as he saw it. He spoke about a queen on the throne. It was a period of revolutionary fever. The French Revolution of 1789. Prior to that was the very bloody Revolutionary War of the American Independence that culminated with them getting independence from Britain in 1776.

“It was the best of times and the worse of times”.

This is how Dickens described the state of affairs as he saw it in 1663 This was quite a graphic social commentary.  Then he spoke of the:

” The Winter of despair “.

He could have been writing about the invasion of Capitol Hill incited by President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, which occurred over 200 years later 2021.  This was also in the heights of winter in the USA.  It was a despicable event that unfolded in Washington DC the accepted high seat of democracy in the world.  In a nutshell writers and lyricists write about their life experiences. They are social historians. They record it in their diaries and journals which become part of the tools of their artistic works. the events which are unfolding before their very eyes in an unadulterated manner,  as they occurred.  These events must have had a profound impact on them. For example:  The beheading of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France was a part of these life experiences. She was accused of pursuing a lavish lifestyle and in her response the queen was reported to have said:

“Let them eat cake”

This comment attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette was seen as a slap in the face to her subjects as coming from a callous and uncaring queen. This apparent indifference to their hardships and sufferings infuriated the public, which led to her being beheaded at the stakes. As recorded in historical accounts of the dramatic, if not tragic incident as it unfolded.

French Revolution

You can easily image the impact this singular event must have had on the witnesses and those who recorded this event in particular and how it served to educate us all later. Also how that singular event that followed those series of events dramatically altered the course of history not only in France, but across the atlantic. It must have reverberated regionally if not internationally in the corridors of power.  We now refer to it as the French Revolution, celebrated annually on July 1, as Bastille Day as France’s Independence day.

Conclusion

Artistes will express what they experience. That is a fact if life.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a veteran journalist who has a keen interest in artistic issues, as he himself is a poet. He has an international exposure.

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