Dancehall: who a mash it up?

In the following blog post, STAR of The Month, Dancehall artiste Konshens sounds off what he thinks is really destroying the music business.

Nowadays one of the hottest and most disturbing topics in the streets is the ‘mashing up’ of the local music industry. Every member of our fading business seems to have his or her own reasoning behind this crisis but no one is taking the time out to look at themselves as a possible factor. Who is to be blamed though?

It could be the selectors and disc jocks for playing biased and following whatever one disc jocks plays instead of actually listening to the millions of good songs out there dying for a run, and playing only seven artistes at every single party and in whatever segment.

It could be the producers for putting out lame productions and sixty new rhythms every week with the same artistes clearly indicating that production to them is about the artiste and not the ‘the song’.

It could be the new artistes for our poor work ethics, low regard for the roots and reputation of our music, the sidelining of our actual talent and special individual characteristics in an attempt to follow whatever is in to get a fast play.

It could  also be the elder artistes for forgetting what they had to go through for music and allowing themselves to be sucked into this new age short hand trend where an artiste with 20 years under his or her belt is now toe-to-toe with an artiste with a few months to his credit.

It could also be the governing bodies for selling out and fighting out so many important aspects of dancehall culture and it could also be the ‘fans’, yes the general public.  We the fans could also be a factor, we go to every session but we don’t really support. We want to go to the 300 parties on every night and we want to leave home at 10 o’clock and cram it all in an hour so there’s no early juggling for reggae music and vibing and visiting the bar and dem nice ting deh.

Its just twenty minutes to see what everybody else is wearing, bus two blank fi di really hot songs that are gonna be the same ones played at the next party anyway.

The fact of the matter is we all play a part in the killing of our music culture and business and until we stop pointing the finger and start addressing a solution, better we get out our funeral gear!

By Konshens