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Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture – An Anthology

Posted: December 17th, 2020 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture – An Anthology

Kingston is the loudest city in the Anglophone Caribbean and Jamaica whose national instrument is the sound system is the noisiest country on the planet. Reggae is but one of Jamaica’s indigenous musical genres. It provides a window into the soul of Jamaicans, the life and style of ordinary people including their historical struggles and contemporary triumphs. As a nation, Jamaica boasts world renowned creativity per capita that is arguably unmatched by any other nation. Sonic innovation, especially around the development of musical genres and the sound system, is at the heart of Kingston being designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music in 2015. It is this city which has birthed at least six (6) indigenous genres in the mid- to late Nineteenth Century. Reggae is arguably the most prominent worldwide, representing Jamaica across the world, with names such as Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Marcia Griffith and Peter Tosh being some of the most easily identifiable artists.

The Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture anthology is a project which builds on recent consultations, collaborations and meetings including the Reggae Research Network held throughout the UK in 2017, the Bass Culture Research Project and associated events, the Strictly Vinyl Sound System Outernational #4 in January 2018 at Goldsmiths, University of London with subsequent conferences in 2019 (Italy) and 2020 (online), and Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture in April 2018 at the Birmingham Conservatoire and in February 2019 at the University of the West Indies at Mona Campus.

This anthology will highlight subgenres, crossovers, mashups, intersections and innovations, featuring local, regional and international academics, practitioners and musicians. The anthology will engage with reggae innovation, particularly the theoretical and practical expressions of how innovation plays out through music and popular culture.

We welcome proposed papers that address the following sub-themes:

  • Innovationthrough heritage, from mento to dancehall.
  • Innovationfor heritage beyond dancehall.
  • Reggaefuturists and reggaefuturism.
  • Reggaemusicians and innovation case studies.
  • Re-readingreggae histories, transitions and translations.
  • Reggaein (and out) of global and/or local spaces.
  • Reggae, music and gender.
  • Reggaeand the music industry; new forms, new marketing, new audiences.
  • Jamaican and diasporic sonicities.
  • Reggaeand intellectual property.
  • NewReggae, new media, and new technologies.
  • Exploring dub’s inner and outer spaces and locations.
  • Dub as rhetoric and discourse.
  • Dub and technology
  •    Sound System outernational
  •    Sonic politics and citizenship
  • Reggaeand dub visualization.
  • Reggaein and out of popular music studies.
  • Creativity: from theory to practice; methods and processes.
  • Reggaeas source and stimulus for music intersections and hybrids.
  • Reggaevoice(s).
  • Reggae in transition: reinventing reggae – reconfigurations, collaborations and crossovers.

Contributions must be between 3000 and 6000 words and formatted in accordance with UWI Press style, found https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NW6ashBtzIRYSp7FmV4ANwEspG_tGTyW8jabe_5QnbQ/edit

Please ensure that the formatting guidelines are carefully applied. 

The submission deadline for abstracts is December 31, 2020 and the deadline for full papers is January 31, 2021. Email all submissions to Dr. Sonjah Stanley Niaah at [email protected]