The

Effects of
Dancehall music
On Youth

Done By : Malik Brown

Candidate #: 10011112048
Teacher: Ms. D. Morgan
School: St Jago High
Territory: Jamaica
 Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………….Pg. 1
Preface……………………………………………………Pg. 3
Gone With the Wind……………………………………...Pg. 4
Language Analysis………………………………………..Pg. 7
Bibliography……………………………………………...Pg. 9
 Introduction

This portfolio is based on Jamaica’s music industry; however the study was done

on the effects of Dancehall music on the youth of the community.

Music on a whole is a very powerful tool, it has been used to unite warring nations

and has also influenced some wars, it has the ability to change one’s mood and set

an atmosphere among other things. We live today in a society where dancehall

music has become the preferred genre of music to listen to by the youth, and it is

one of the major contributing factors to the way how young people behave and

relate to the other groups in society. The problem is that the content of dancehall

music today promotes things that are against the values of the society, such as:

Sex, Crime and violence and drug abuse. These things have altered the thinking of

the youth and have led them to actions which are against the countries values and

might even go as far as against the law, and this is why I feel we should know

about the effects of this type of music on youths.

This research contains an exposition assessing the impact that dancehall music has

on the youth of society. The researcher discussed the factors contributing the

influence of listening to dancehall and also went in depth in looking at the various

negative effects caused by the influence of dancehall music. The reflective sample

entitled ‘Gone with the Wind’ presents a prime example of a young man who was
polite, courteous and respectful. We see in the story how the dancehall music

turned him into a menace to society.

As a person who wants to do music as a career, it is my passion for music that has

led me to research on this topic. Knowing the effects that dancehall music has on

the youth of society has also led to want to educate all people on these effects and

also to curve this problem.

 Preface

The reflective piece ‘Gone with the wind’ is a short story written in the

genre of prose. The short story is written in prose because of its natural flow of

speech and its grammatical structure and is also straight forward and it involves

narration which makes it more interesting. It was the best way to make bringing

across the researches message possible.

The story is about a young boy who was a model student and high achiever,

but he gave in into temptation and started to listen to dancehall music. After

starting to listen to dancehall, he changed tremendously from a high achiever to a

delinquent consuming and dealing drugs and he continued to spiral until he was

arrested.

This short story was written with the aim of showing how dancehall music

impacts the youth of society and their behaviors. This piece is targeted at the

youths to show them that the music they listen can influence and affect their

behavior and what it can do to them and also to the makers of dancehall music

which are the most influential and idolized by youths so they can recognize the

power they have and how it can affect society negatively. This story can and is

intended to be placed in a youth magazine, newspapers etc.

 Gone with the wind

“Should I really do this?” Brandon thought to himself as he stared at the

laptop screen. On it was a list of dancehall songs on thumb drive a classmate gave

him. Brandon was 15 years old and in the 9th grade, he lived with his mother alone

in the inner city after his father had been killed. Despite this adversity he was one

of the top students in his school and was on the honor roll, he was unlike the other

students at his school they all lived on dancehall music, listening it every chance

they got, Brandon however, chose to listen to other genres and was constantly

ridiculed by his peers. They often tried to persuade him to listen dancehall music

but to no avail, “bad man yah clown?” they would say, “Yuh nuh see a dancehall a

run road now?” and he would just answer, “I’m good with what I listen man”. It

started to weigh on him, how different he was, he decided that he would just try to

listen dancehall, to give it one try and that would be it. So there he was, on

youtube he searched for VybzKartel, clicked a song and started to listen and as

they say, the rest is history.

He started out listening just VybzKartel, but then started to listen every

dancehall artist. He began to listen dancehall every opportunity he got until it

became a part of him. He went from being a decent well put together young man

to a delinquent, he now wore his pants below his waist, started wearing Clarks and
bleached his skin. He became worse than his peers who had pushed him to

dancehall, he was now an underachiever and came off the honor roll, he smoked,

drank, and even to ok drugs and became a dealer while still attending school, he

started carrying a knife, and getting into numerous altercations. He was getting

from bad to worse, and the more dancehall music he listened, the worse he became.

He looked up to these artists because they seemed to make up for the lack of a

father figure in his life, and all these artists sung about was drugs and violence and

these songs influenced his behavior and changed him on a whole. But he was to

soon have a rude awakening.

He skipped school one day and was on the corner of a street in his

community when a black van drove up beside him. As the window rolled down

with smoke escaping, a man called to him, “Yow juvenile, you nu know weh me

can get a five bills bag?” “Right yasso boss” Brandon replied as he took out a bag

of marijuana out of his bag and handed it to the man. The man quickly stepped out

of the van and put Brandon in handcuffs, he was a policeman who was undercover.

Brandon had no chance or excuse and was found guilty and went to a juvenile

detention center. There he was beaten and abused and that was when he came to

his senses, he started thinking to himself only if had stuck to his preferences, he

realized that his life changed the moment he listen to that dancehall song and from
there the regret set in. He could do nothing but live out his sentence, he vowed

never to listen dancehall music ever again.

 Language Analysis

“Gone with the wind” the short story was written in a third person narrative

so readers would have an understanding of the events that take place creating a

more visual look and feel in the life of the main character. The story is about a

young boy who abandoned his values when he started listening Dancehall music

and adopted the behaviors the genre promoted and only came to his senses when

he was arrested for selling drugs.

The writer made use of dialect variation in the short story. We can see where

dialect variation was very evident in before the main character started listening

dancehall music he spoke completely in Standard English, and by the time he was

arrested he was speaking straight patois. The writer uses dialect variation to give a

graphic representation of how much the main character had changed because

Patois is mainly seen as a backward language in key social institutions such the

church and school. The main character would now be seen as someone uncultured

with no decency.

We also see in the story where the causal language register is mostly used in this

story where dialogue takes place. The main character speaking in patios, which is

widely not considered a formal language. We also see popular Jamaican slang is

used eg, “dancehall music a run road”. The term ‘run road’ is a popular Jamaican
slang used to say something or someone is very popular. The writer uses this

register to make clear the distinction between the behaviors of those who listen

dancehall music and those who do.

In conclusion, it can be said that dialect variation and language registers were

effectively used and assisted in making the piece more realistic as well as bring

across the intended message.

 Bibliography

Cape Communication Studies by Dr. Harold McDermott Ph.D.

Communication Studies for Cape Examinations by Veronica Simon
http://cape-commstudies.blogspot.com/2011/02/language-registers.html
http://street-jamzmosiks.blogspot.com/2018/06/