Beyond Reggae Sumfest: The ‘Festivalization’ of Jamaica’s Music and Cities

July 28, 2017July 31, 2017 News Room

Jamaican popular music has a rich history of performance based competitions and shows that produced many stars. The Jamaica Cultural Development Competition, The Tastee Talent Trail, Magnum Kings and Queens, and Digicel’s Rising Stars have all produced some of the top Grammy winners and entertainers out of Jamaica. Jamaica’s most famed musician, Bob Marley first performed on Darling Street’s ‘Testing’ competition and won one pound as the winner- which was how his musical career started. In recent times, however, there has been much dialogue on what is the value of a Jamaican recording artiste to major record labels and the music industry. The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission also omitted its popular song competition as part of its National Cultural celebrations this year citing weak entries and shifting the budget towards a “tribute album”. The statistics will also show that the Jamaican brand of Reggae and Dancehall is not close to a competitive level on the charts when sung by the Jamaican artistes.

All this while many veteran and new Jamaican artiste’s headline sold out concerts, multi-day festivals and other events here in Jamaica and all over the world. Chronixx recently said of his sold out events in the USA while on tour during his interview on Hot97, that nine thousand people came to see him at one of his events-but according to Billboard’s Chart, Chronixx’s album – Chronology only managed to sell just above two thousand records in its first week of release. This after getting numerous promotional spots on Jimmy Fallon and other popular media outlets to promote his music.

Why are the people who attend the shows not willing to go into their pockets and purchase the records released by the Jamaican artistes?

One may argue that the audience who loves reggae music and dancehall music have not sophisticated themselves with the latest streaming or downloading options such as Spotify or Tidal, and as a result, they do not care to consume the music on those platforms. We may also blame the the local copyright governing bodies for not signing on to the Madrid protocol -which is an international copyrighters agreement that allows artistes to earn royalties in the Caribbean from digital sales among other channels. Currently, a Jamaican artistes is unable to collect digital royalties from iTunes in the Caribbean because iTunes radio and playlists are not available in the region. Of note, Canada is also yet to sign the same agreement but Drake, who is a Canadian is the top selling hip hop act in the world.

Despite all of these set backs and cultural nuances, the Jamaican artistes still manage to deliver the best shows and make some of the most inspiring music for the world. Recently I saw Beenie Man, Sizzla and Jah Cure entertain the crowd at a world class level at the Reggae Sumfest 2017, for over an hour each. Their sets didn’t require any lights or backdrop fan fare behind them because they performed to the early morning sunlight. It was more than spectacular to watch them with just a band, a stage, the audience, and a mic.

This undisputed vocal control, presence and performance quality possessed by many Jamaican artistes have made many people want to experience a Jamaican festival in person. It is a quality that is not fully transferable to the studio audio recording.

As a result Reggae Music consumers are willing to find the free version of an album that cost ten United States Dollars but less willing to forgo the spend of seventy United States Dollars for an event that is also available online for free.

Producing a Jamaican Reggae Festival then becomes much easier than anywhere else in the world if there a demand for high level performances on the island. If people are willing to attend a Reggae Festival that is also live streamed, there is no reason why Jamaica’s cities and major cultural should not have more festivals at different times of the year. The Music Festivals that currently happen in Jamaica are Rebel Salute and Reggae Sumfest- both bringing their own energies and problems to the cities and towns they inhabit such as: traffic, crime, drugs.

They also bring tangible solutions that can bring pride and economic benefit to the communities they exist in that would not be possible without the festivals. Festivals are attractive to visitors and visitors spend money which goes beyond the walls of the festival venue. Hometown pride is important for building any community and will make locals and visitors speak well of their experience in the particular city or town. Jamaica’s recording music industry is terribly lacking in organization for international competitiveness, but as long as the artistes are performing, people are aways willing to be present.

The development of music in this festive fashion is capable of revitalizing the dormant and detached communities in Jamaica. Some may argue that the immediate need is for more concrete structures, hospitals and schools and not an some random investment in a one night or a one-week intangible event, My answer to this is to deeper and assess the impact of festivals that respond to the needs of the community and we will come to appreciate the long lasting effects on the adjoining industries with a much lesser initial capital spend.

Culturally, the Jamaican people generally have a need to connect with others in their community and with visitors alike. We have a history of gathering for celebrations with family and friends. When a Reggae festival brings the opportunity for a shared experience, the unity more often than not makes people less likely to kill one another over petty disputes. Deals are made and relationships developed. People feel like family when they have common interests.

We, Jamaicans also love to have a “sense of occasion”. The euphoric nature of a major occasion makes us feel a sense of ritualistic order just to be at the event. That sense of ritual created with festivals give lasting memories, and good memories develop our self-esteem and that will make Jamaicans and visitors alike become better versions themselves.

Naming or theming the festival can also create experimental learning parallels in social classroom. Experiences that provide education encourages greater connection to the location and help people from outside the community to develop greater empathy towards those living in the communities.

If the success of Reggae Sumfest is any sample to go by, the artistes, government, and other festival producers should then look towards liberalizing the development of Jamaica’s music industry one community at a time. With weekly or monthly live festivals that are unique to each community there will be new life injected in the whole country. The artistes will have more spaces to practices and there will be rise in the quality of artistic output form the recordings and performances. It is nature of who we are to sing, dance, and to celebrate. So why not make community building a more holistic experience where people will be genuinely interested in their development through festivals for the benefit of all beyond Reggae Sumfest.