by Menace II Babylon on 10 June 2008

VALUES: Is dancehall culture a good role model?

A media watchdog group has blasted dancehall music, claiming that its explicit lyrics and sexually suggestive dance moves are sending wrong messages about relationships to children.

Hilary Nicholson of Womens Media Watch said: Most of these songs are messages which relate to male-female relationships and are not messages of respect, care and consideration, she said.

They dont promote values. Instead, what is being pushed is aggressive sexuality. And most times, its not them (the artistes) singing about what they are doing, but it seems like they are telling you what to do and how to treat women, Nicholson told the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper.

She argued that some dancehall songs normalise violent sexual behaviour, which affects both men and women. There are some women who believe that when a man is not applying force, he is not doing something properly. It is like they have come to believe that sex should be something forceful, involving even the bruising of genitals, said Nicholson.

But not everyone agreed. At dancehall events on some streets where the music is played, residents told local reporters they saw nothing wrong with children learning the lyrics and even doing the dance moves. In fact at one dance, held on the outskirts of the parish of St Catherine, explicit lyrics filled the air and patrons, many of them women, got busy gyrating, despite the presence of more than a dozen children under 10 years old.

They even held a dance competition which saw three women in their mid-20s and four young girls compete with suggestive dance moves on a makeshift stage. The crowd cheered as one girl balanced on her head, legs shooting into the air. One man told the Gleaner that such competitions happened all the time and children often came with their mums.

A ghetto this, you know. Is just the ghetto culture. Nothing wrong with it, he said.

Lorain Henry, a mum of five children under age 13, agreed.

Nothing nuh wrong wid dancehall music. My pickney dem know di whole ah the song dem. Dem go a dance and nothing nuh do dem. Is just because is poor people music why dem a try fight it. Nothing nuh wrong wid it! she insisted. The West Kingston mum got support from her neighbours as she said:

My big daughter go dance and know di song dem from she start go school, Lorain said, calling her daughter so she could dance and perform her favourite song, called Wine pon di edge.

Dr. Donna Hope, lecturer in reggae studies at the University of the West Indies in Kingston said much depended on a childs home life and values taught. She said children may not fully understand what they are saying. She said while there has been no formal research done to assess the impact of dancehall on children, social factors perhaps play a greater role in shaping values.

But at least one DJ, Jeffrey Campbell, who goes by the moniker Assassin, said parents have to be more responsible and censor what their children see or hear.

What do you think, is dancehall culture a negative influence on young children?