Music has always been a vital aspect of virtually all cultures in the world. In the past, societies composed or created music to celebrate, mourn, entertain or even for passive purposes. People would sing about events, other people, their environment, and anything that triggered enough inspiration or compulsion. Ancient societies used seemingly primitive techniques to compose and record music. These techniques would vary from one culture to another. One of the most prominent places music would be played or sang was place of worship. Almost all societies believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, and many cultures compose songs to praise and worship this Supreme Being who is believed to be the creator of the universe. It is also important to note that music composers in the past would sometimes be restricted in terms of composition and performance of music. However, with time, people got more freedom to experiment and create novel ways of composing and even playing music. Apart from the numerous forms of music, the consumption and production of music have transformed over time. Currently, music can be heard and performed almost everywhere ranging concerts, homes, churches and at people’s pleasure. Jamaica and Egypt represent different societies in terms of production and consumption of popular music. This paper, therefore, examines how Jamaica and Egypt portray different ways of production as well as consumption of popular music. It will further highlight some of the features that distinguish Jamaica and Egypt in relation to the production and consumption of popular music.
There are three features of how Jamaica and Egypt reveal their production and consumption of popular music. According to Combat (1990), all music is popular because there is no music extant that has not been electronically colonized. Therefore, musical imperialism of this type has a dynamic treatment of popularity notion that cuts across three significant territories. Revealing popular music as a statistical region is one of the features of how Jamaica and Egypt have revealed the ways in the consumption and production of popular music. In this case, popular music is the one that sells best or in some other way represent a significant population which requires some degree of recursivity to maintain this position. This is mostly shown Billboard magazine’s where record sales that mix with pre-retail order shipments are used with real retail sales to the determine the recording popularity. Secondly, showing popular music as a formal genre is another feature that shows ways in the production and consumption of popular music. This happens when the existence of certain kinds of music recur within the pre-mentioned group that generate popular music definition that is connected with rock music, soul and funk which are a different form of pop. In this case, punk is considered a popular music irrespective of its nonconsensual status.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Finally, revealing popular music as anything recorded is another feature of how Egypt and Jamaica show ways in the production and consumption of popular music. In this scenario, regarding popular music as anything recorded is a medium that connects the past two groups and blurs the visibility because the technology of recording has made it a possibility to regard mediated music popular. This idea has penetrated in the sphere of production and is readily seen as hip-hop, scratch, rap and dub reggae. In these types of music, texts may comprise of classical or arcane pop music, animal calls, spoken words and other cultures or sounds of known or unknown origin. Therefore, the decrease of meanings one after the other is not haphazard but it has perpetually contributed to an all-round popular utilization that represents popular demand that has been secreted from the edges of earlier need.
As coined by Danielson (1987) in the ‘Qur’an and the Qasidah: Aspects of the Popularity of the Repertory sung by Umm Kulthom’ article, it is clear that the music of Egypt depended on the cantillation of the Quran as a significant source for most musical style. Additionally, the structural framework that was provided by the classical Arabic music-poetic genre acted as a driver for the originality of the Egyptian-Arabic musical expression. Danielson (1987) further indicates in her article that the recitation of the Quran as well as Qasidah in the culture of Egypt was popular and loved across the country, particularly in broadcasting and commemorations. Eventually, the recitation of the Quran was broadcasted in radio from the start of radio in Egypt. Afterwards, the recitation of the Quran was sold on commercial recordings and later on inexpensive cassettes. As much as people did not know how to articulate specific rules of Quran recitation, they recited correctly and many of them were familiar with the correct sound.
Another aspect that showed the production and consumption of popular music is the place of culture in Arabic culture. Qasidah is the oldest Arabic poetic genre that consisted of hemistichs that were arranged according to a single rhyme scheme and a meter. Danielson (1987) further argues that one line in the Qasidah expressed a complete thought which contributed to the wider themes of the poem. They were usually sung, read and written or performed by one artist with or no instrumental accompaniment. The musical setting of this particular genre was usually that of a well-composed song and improvisation found its place in the different repetition of lines. As opposed to another poetic genre, the line of the Qasidah remains intact when sung and the improvisation of the single words that are removed from their places is less frequent as compared to another genre in familiar songs. The Qasidah is considered as a crucial Arabic genre since the pre-Islamic times.
A notable example that depicts how Egypt has shown ways in the production and consumption of popular music is that of Umm Kulthum. As a result of mass media use, the repertory of Umm became a culturally shared entity. The profound success of Umm Kulthum good singing is attributed by her success and longevity of repertory. Apart from her success and longevity in repertory, Umm Kulthum exercised a strong and unchanging interest in the composition as well as editing of the melodies and the texts she sang (Thelwell,1991). In one occasion, she explained that her success and popularity in music was contributed by the knowledge to read the Quran. She further insisted that she attended a kuttab as a teacher to be taught how to read the Quran. According to Umm, the Quran is always read aloud while elevating the Arabic texts using grammatical formulations as well as vocabulary that are far beyond the language of everyday life. To successfully recite the Quran, the articulation of words and proper case ending is needed. Therefore, reciting the Quran equips a person to enunciate words as well as individual letters.
Production and consumption of popular music by Jamaica
According to Collins (2003) in the article of the ‘The Harder They Come’, the author has explained that he immersed himself in the film because there was no complete script that existed. He attributed the non-existence of the script to the deteriorating economics of the blacks that necessitated that the film to be a shot piecemeal. From this study, it is evident that the production and consumption of popular music in Jamaica is different from that of Egypt. As opined by Collins (2003), it is evident that popular music production and consumption is ingrained in Jamaican culture. ‘The Harder They Come’ film was full of the poetic visual dimension of the film, the sequence of images, the rhythms and pacing of the scenes, editing momentum, the cadences of Jamaican speech as well music evocativeness which depicted the brutal, energy and rhythms of the urban street culture of Kingston ghetto life. As much as this film was criticized by many scholars, it provided an opportunity to promote reggae records. some of the striking footages that represent the culture of the people include scenes of singing and sermonizing in church, the sequence of Rastafarian bathing dreadlocks in the sea as well as the still shots of Rhygin’ posing for gunslinger-style photographs.
Even though some themes and action scenes in the film included political corruption and class struggle, the film would have portrayed the Jamaican ghetto youth disenfranchisement if produced as conceived by Henzell. The is because, the film, as it is, tries to deliver Rastafarian soulfulness and rebelliousness and the rude boy cultures that are expressed in the popular music of Jamaica. Additionally, the film also depicts the Neocolonial Jamaican society, the predatory recording and the corrupt government institutions in the history of colonization. This is the time when most Jamaicans were reflecting on the possibilities of rebuilding their colonial society into a society that would economically and socially incorporate all people including suffers.
During this time, the innovation of the lyrical and musical system developed a new social space that promulgated the voices of the urban yard.
The sound system availed new ideas about society, history, people, order and destiny. In the real sense, the sound system redefined the country of Jamaica in terms of international, national and local identity establishments. Some of the lyrical force found in ‘The Harder They Come’ was derived from its involvement with the Jamaican sound system culture and its soundtrack. In Jamaica, popular music and the sound system culture played a significant role in developing a space for articulating social critiques, demanding the secular and spiritual commitment to the establishment of an equal society ( Nidel, 2004 ). Apart from articulating social critiques, a concise awareness of divisive social geographies of racism, classism and resistance emerged. From this illustration, the production and consumption of popular music were indeed shown as anything recorded. The recorded music in Jamaica represented their culture.
Conclusively, music is one of the most important things that has accompanied individuals since time immemorial. One of the reasons why music is a powerful thing is its undoubted power of restoring the mind of people to tranquillity as well as composing emotional disturbance. In addition to the numerous forms of music, the consumption and production of music have transformed over time. Currently, music can be heard almost everywhere ranging concerts, homes, churches and even supermarkets. The features of how Jamaica and Egypt revealed the ways in the production and consumption of popular music differed greatly. As much as both countries revealed popular music based on statistical region, formal genre or anything recorded, their production and consumption of the popular music differed. For the production and consumption of popular music, Egypt relied on the recitation of the Quran and Qasidah while Jamaica depended solely on their culture. Most of the artist in Egypt used Quran recitation as a method to learn how to sing while in Jamaica, the sound system culture created a space to articulate social critiques creates awareness on issues such as racism, resistance and classism.
References
Collins, L. (2003). The harder they come: Rougher version. Small Axe , 7 (1), 46-71.
Corbett, J. (1990). Free, single, and disengaged: Listening pleasure and the popular music object. October, 54.
Danielson, V. (1987). The" Qur'an" and the" Qasidah": Aspects of the Popularity of the Repertory Sung by Umm Kulthūm. Asian music , 26-45.
Nidel, R. O. (2004). World music: The basics . Routledge.
Thelwell, M. (1991). The Harder They Come: From Film to Novel. Grand Street , 134-165.
