Dancehall's Decline

Dancehall originated in the late 1970s as a subgenre of reggae that involved the use of digital instrumentation from sound systems (groups of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music), along with artists singing or deejaying in heavy Jamaican patois (versus the standard Queen’s English). Dancehall has been likened to rap in the ways that a deejay will hop on an instrumental known as a “riddim” and freestyle. 

Because of these roots in sound clash culture (music competitions between sound systems) and sampling, dancehall and the equally competitive rap genre became natural friends and collaborators of sorts throughout the 80s and 90s. It also didn’t hurt that the birth of hip-hop out of The Bronx involved artists of Jamaican heritage along with later rappers such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes. It only made sense that as both music forms became more popular, collaboration followed, which led to mainstream dancehall of the 2000s. 

Dancehall artists such as Sean Paul, Beanie Man and Elephant Man were able to crossover to the American mainstream with their own hits and collaborations with popular American artists. It wasn’t just hip-hop, but R&B artists and even a few pop stars as well who were cashing in on the reggae fusion wave. Dancehall was booming in America and on the Billboard charts. 

It was everywhere. 

Rihanna, the mega pop star we know today, launched her career with “Pon de Replay” in 2005, a song with dancehall roots and one of the many popular songs that's instrumentation is derived from the “Diwali Riddim”. It even managed to reach all the way to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Beanie Man collaborated with Lil’ Kim, Janet Jackson and more. Sean Paul won Grammys for his hit album Dutty Rock and the singles were inescapable at parties. Sometimes I even heard more Sean Paul in white spaces than in black ones. 

Fast forward to the 2010s and Vybz Kartel and Movado are on the rise. They are making music that has taken over Jamaica but are failing to cross over. 

Why is that? 

Some could say their music was more explicit with language, as well as sexuality, but dancehall has been explicit going back to its early days with people such as Bounty Killa and Lady Saw. So what happened? 

I have two answers. Dancehall went too mainstream and also growing US/Jamaican political tensions.

Once dancehall became mainstream, it became pop and when that happens to any genre it is commodified and eventually repackaged to be palatable to more global audiences. In America, that also means more white audiences, especially back in the 2000s and 2010s. 

For all the success of multiple dancehall artists, there is a reason specific artists like Shaggy and Sean Paul rose to the top amongst their peers. Both Shaggy and Sean Paul can talk and sing with thick Jamaican accents but they also choose not to and you can’t convince me that it wasn’t a smart business choice (although we could have a convo another day about how Americans are intentionally obtuse and ignorant when they claim its very hard to understand heavy patois in music). Also, I’m not saying the music wasn’t good, because it absolutely was, but colorism is also at play, it helps that they are both lighter skin in comparison to an Elephant Man or Beenie Man for example. Even when they sang in patois it was still easier and more palatable for white crowds to comprehend what they were saying than other Jamaican artists and by the time the 2010s hit, record labels realized they didn’t need a Vybz Kartel. They could find more “accessible” avenues to sell dancehall or dancehall pop.

Artists like Sean Paul collaborated with even more pop stars in the early 2010s. Music act Major Lazer (one third of the trio, Walshy Fire, is a first generation Jamaican American) who entered the scene around 2008, blended dancehall sounds with the electro dance craze to make more pop music for other pop artists, effectively cutting out the Jamaican artists back at home. Even Sean Paul has admitted recently that for as much as his music did crossover, it wasn’t the raw dancehall that crossed over but the more R&B based music that was easier to get on air radio play.

Sean Paul also briefly touches on my second theory for why dancehall and dancehall artists in particular stopped charting: politics. Back in the 2010s, American and Jamaican political tensions were rife, with Jamaica’s prime minister at the time, Bruce Golding, refusing to extradite notorious drug dealer Christopher “Dudus” Coke who faced multiple drug and gun trafficking charges in the U.S. Some believe this was in retaliation to Buju Banton being arrested and sentenced in Florida back in 2009 but we don’t really know. As a result of the Dudus situation, there were mass U.S. visa cancellations for popular dancehall artists like Beenie Man, Mavado, Bounty Killer, Aidonia and Vybz Kartel. Sean Paul believes there was more than just political motivations behind these visa cancellations and some of the artists were involved in other things that led to their cancellations. Regardless, what we do know is that being barred legal entry into the US played a big role in the stagnation of mainstream dancehall, as artists could not perform and promote their music in the States. The record labels, primarily VP Records, which almost all of the major dancehall artists are signed to, weren’t able to do much on their end either. This stagnation coupled with pop artists making dancehall-lite music led to the downfall of mainstream dancehall. The genre itself is still global and people can name songs but if we are to talk pure numbers, dancehall artists themselves did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 after the 2000s until the 2020s. Gyptian was the last artist to chart on the Hot 100 in 2010 with his song “Hold Yuh”. 

Dancehall is still around but the popular artists are not known the way they should be and if they are known it is through collabs with other artists and via pop songs and not their own dancehall music. The genre on a mainstream level no longer belongs to Jamaicans because we didn’t gatekeep hard enough. Had dancehall had their first boom during the streaming era like reggaetón and Afrobeats perhaps things would be different. However, would it be the dancehall that we grew up listening to? Maybe not. We also have to take into account how the music industry has changed and there are other factors at play, such as how the streaming era has affected sampling and how musicians make money. 

Riddims, which is a core part of dancehall, barely happens anymore because it is simply expensive and hard to get multiple artists on a single riddim that none of them will profit from. I blame late stage capitalism and a lack of gatekeeping for why dancehall has continued to stagnate. Some would also say perhaps the lyricism needs to evolve as well but then you still have people listening to the classics of the past. 

Current dancehall artists today are not really mainstream either but for the first time in years there does seem to be an effort to make a push into crossing over, but at what cost?

Shenseea is the first Jamaican female dancehall artist to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 17 years. However, she didn’t do it for a dancehall song or even a song of her own. It was because she was a collaborator on Kanye West’s “Pure Souls”. Shenseea, who has a major label record deal, has recently been collaborating with more American rappers (Kanye West, Megan thee Stallion, Tyga, etc) and doing more singing and rapping on these records than deejaying over traditional dancehall beats. Responding to backlash from her early Jamaican fanbase, she has stated in interviews that she isn’t abandoning dancehall, but is just branching out creatively as musicians tend to do.

Time will tell if this will work out for her and if it is even the right choice because her initial draw as an artist was dancehall before anything else. There is nothing wrong with branching out, but again at what cost? The reasoning behind her transition to other genres to get mainstream recognition in the first place is part of the issue I have with the genre’s current placement in the cultural climate.   

I haven’t even touched on the more local Jamaican artists that aren't even getting the shine Shenseea is who are just as good and daresay even better. I am wary of stagnation with dancehall but thanks to the internet and looking at how other genres are thriving, I don’t think there is cause for alarm yet. I do think this decade will have lots of growing pains for the genre but I’m not feeling very negative about it either. For now, time will tell what the future of dancehall looks like, but I believe there is enough upcoming talent along with veterans of the past who are willing to work with the younger generation to ensure the music remains popular and alive even if slightly different than the classic sounds of the past.

All in all, there are a few reasons as to why dancehall hasn’t seen the popularity it has since the 2000s. Regardless, what a fun and influential era in music and pop culture history that it was.