Time and Memory in Reggae Music : The Politics of Hope

On the basis of a body of reggae songs from the 1970s and late 1990s, the author offers a sociological analysis of memory, hope and redemption in reggae music. -- . Front matter Contents List of tables and boxes List of figures Acknowledgements Epigraph Introduction Part I A study in elective affinity: Music, religion, memory Reggae and Rastafari: A short history Interpreting songs: Notes on methodology A diachronic analysis of Jamaican reggae charts, 1968 –2000 The construction of a musical memory Part II Remembering the past Slavery and the diaspora: Temporal and spatial articulations The construction of a religious chain of memory Part III Revealing the future Messianism, between past and future Hope and redemption The eschatology as future-present The construction of a socio-political memory Part IV From revelation to revolution Rhetoric of oppression and social critique Only rasta can liberate the people: resistance and revolution Part V Conclusion Time and memory Annex 1: List of songs mentioned, by artist Annex 2: Albums in the corpus Bibliography Index On the basis of a body of reggae songs from the 1970s and late 1990s, this book offers a sociological analysis of memory, hope and redemption in reggae music. From Dennis Brown to Sizzla, the way in which reggae music constructs a musical, religious and socio-political memory in rupture with dominant models is vividly illustrated by the lyrics themselves. How is the past remembered in the present? How does remembering the past allow for imagining the future? How does collective memory participate in the historical grounding of collective identity? What is the relationship between tradition and revolution, between the recollection of the past and the imagination of the future, between passivity and action? Ultimately, this case study of ‘memory at work'opens up a theoretical problem: the conceptualization of time and its relationship with memory. On the basis of a body of reggae songs from the 1970s and late 1990s, this book offers a sociological analysis of memory, hope and redemption in reggae music. From Dennis Brown to Sizzla, the way in which reggae music constructs a musical, religious and socio-political memory in rupture with dominant models is vividly illustrated by the lyrics themselves. How is the past remembered in the present? How does remembering the past allow for imagining the future? How does collective memory participate into the historical grounding of collective identity? What is the relationship between tradition a On the basis of a body of reggae songs from the 1970s and the late 1990s, this book offers a sociological analysis of memory hope and redemption in reggae music