Book Report - Inna Di Dancehall by Donna P. Hope.

Book Report - Inna Di Dancehall by Donna P. Hope.
The book Inna Di Dancehall- ‘Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica’ was published in 2006. ISBN # 976-640-168-3 and consist of 5 chapters, 168 pages, hard cover and was brought for $160.00TT. It was written by the scholar Ms. Donna P. Hope. The book is based on Jamaicans and how they use dancehall music as a way to express their identities and refined the way traditional Jamaican society once recognized them to be. It also looks at the evolution of dancehall culture and the music. Such may include violence, gender, crime, sexuality and personalities.
Donna Hope looks at the how the transformation of Jamaica (economically, politically and socially) has impacted on the evolution of music. The PNP government, when they came into power, had caused the Jamaican foreign reserve to become negative. This happened because they wanted to redistribute the finances that the country was gaining and by doing so they ended all ties and the dependency that Jamaica had on foreign countries. An attempt was made to rectify this when the TLP came into power, but all attempts were proved futile. It was during this period, D Hope explains how Jamaica had undergone changes with respect to the deterioration of services, over population which led to greater poverty levels and a lower standard of living as well as an increase in rent and mortgage. This frustration and stress faced by these Jamaicans in the late 1970’s and 1980’s was expressed through the medium of words in the form of dancehall music. This was the opening grounds for the evolution of dancehall music. This was the opening grounds for the evolution of dancehall music. D. Hope states that dancehall music can be defined as the genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the early 1980’s. Dancehall music was male dominated and it was a way for the poor black men to express themselves. It was a way of survival from the poverty lifestyle that was...