In 2008, a new style in Jamaican dancehall music and dance culture known as “Daggering” emerged. Daggering music and dancing, which included lyrics that graphically referred to sexual activities and a dance which has been described as “dry sex” on the dance floor, took Jamaica by storm. Unlike other dancehall traditions, however, Daggering went so main stream that both television and radio stations were airing audio and video recorded versions of the songs. The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica was forced, because of the public controversy that evolved, to crack down on broadcasting and cable stations preventing them from playing any Daggering content.
Daggering” dancers basically enact simulated sex, since the term is roughly the Caribbean equivalent to “cabin stabbing.”
(Am I the only one who paused at this point to google “cabin stabbing”? And regretted it?)
Grumbles about the craze were already building, and things came to a climax (har har) when the Vybz Kartel and Spice duet, Rampin Shop, hit #1 on the local charts.
Five days later, the Jamaican Broadcasting Commission took the unprecedented step of banning all songs with explicit sexual content from radio and television, as well as songs that glorify gun violence, murder, rape or arson. The ban is absolute, meaning that such songs can no longer be aired as “clean” versions that make use of “bleeping.”
Responses to the ban have been extremely mixed. Some feel the government’s stance is hypocritical: Given that human rights campaigns have fallen on deaf ears for years, why should it take a bit of dry-humping to bring action?
I’m torn on this one.
On the one hand, I’m never a fan of censorship — and this full-on ban seems to be casting a pretty wide net. Who gets to decide what constitutes “explicit sexual content,” after all? If we let them come for our daggering tunes first, will they be after our Marvin Gaye albums next?
But on the other hand, I do worry about the overly sexualized world kids seem to be inhabiting these days. (I bet there are a lot of young’uns that wouldn’t have had to google “cabin stabbing”…) Jamaican reggae singer Horace Andy is quoted in the MOJO blog post: “I don’t think it’s right to play those kind of lyrics on the radio, cause if you beep it out, the kids still know. My daughter is four years old, and she knows every word of ‘Rampin Shop’.”
Check out the dance below and tell us how you feel after watching it(warning Explicit content)
Source Matador Network
Is it art or crime?
