Sonic diaspora,vibrations, and rhythm: thinking through the sounding of the Jamaican dancehall session

Abstract

The propagation of vibrations may provide a better way of understanding the spread of diasporas than the conventional focus on the circulation of products (Hall 1980 Hall, S. 1980. “Encoding/decoding”. In Culture, media, language, Edited by: Hall, S., Hanson, D., Lowe, A. and Willis, P. 122–127. London: Unwin Hyman in association with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.  Google Scholar], Appadurai 1986 Appadurai , A. 1986 . The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .Crossref] , Google Scholar], 1996 Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.  Google Scholar], Gilroy 1993a Gilroy, P. 1993a. The black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness, London: Verso.  Google Scholar], Brah 1996 Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of diaspora: contesting identities, London: Routledge.  Google Scholar]). Jamaican sound systems operate as a broadcast medium and a source of CDs, DVDs, and other commercial products (Henriques 2007a Henriques, J. 2007a. “The Jamaican dancehall sound system as a commercial and social apparatus”. In Sonic synergies: music, identity, technology and community, Edited by: Bloustein, G., Peters, M. and Luckman, S. 133–146. London: Ashgate.  Google Scholar]). But the dancehall sound system session also propagates a broad spectrum of frequencies diffused through a range of media and activities – described as ‘sounding’ (following Small's 1998 concept of ‘musicking’). These include the material vibrations of the signature low-pitched auditory frequencies of Reggae as a bass culture (Johnson 1980 Johnson, L.K. 1980. Bass culture, LP] London: Island Records.  Google Scholar]), at the loudness of ‘sonic dominance’ (Henriques 2003 Henriques, J. 2003. “Sonic dominance and the reggae sound system”. In Auditory culture, Edited by: Bull, M. and Back, L. 451–480. Oxford: Berg.  Google Scholar]). Secondly a session propagates the corporeal vibrations of rituals, dance routines, and bass-line ‘riddims’ (Veal 2007 Veal, M. 2007. Dub: songscapes and shattered Songs in Jamaican reggae, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.  Google Scholar]). Thirdly it propagates the ethereal vibrations (Henriques 2007b Henriques, J. 2007b. “Situating sound: the space and time of the dancehall session”. In Thamyris/intersecting: place, sex and race, Edited by: Marijke, J. and Mieskowski, S. 287–309. Sonic interventions.  Google Scholar]), ‘vibes’ or atmosphere of the sexually charged popular subculture by which the crowd (audience) appreciate each dancehall session as part of the Dancehall scene (Cooper 2004 Cooper, C. 2004. Sound clash: Jamaican dancehall culture at large, New York: Palgrave. Crossref] , Google Scholar]). The paper concludes that thinking though vibrating frequencies makes it easier to appreciate how audiences with no direct or inherited connection with a particular music genre can be energetically infected and affected – to form a sonic diaspora.