Mining the economic value of our music
The success of the abovementioned event led to a daily newspaper, in the 1950s, leading a campaign for the commercial development of recording on the island. Spurred by this interest, in 1951, Jamaican businessmen (mainly of Middle Eastern descent) took up the challenge and invested their monies in setting up recording operations. Two of the early pioneers were Ken Khouri and Stanley Motta who recorded and released the first 78 RPM discs circa 1951. Motta had recorded Rupert Linley Lyon, also known as Lord Fly, while Khouri recorded Byfield Norman Thomas (Lord Flea).
In the same 1950s period, journalist Vere Everette Johns would enter the picture with his “Vere Johns Opportunity Knocks” concerts at the Ambassador Theatre in the Trench Town area of Kingston. The concerts identified singing talent among the throng of Kingston’s youths and provided a growing pool of talent for record producers hungry for material to satisfy the shifting taste for the developing sound system movement mushrooming across the island.
Taken together, it is inarguable that from both developments was born the Jamaican music industry. It had very little structure (if any at all) and in principle, its major players would have been the little man with his God-given singing or otherwise musical talent, and it would remain largely the same even to this very day. That notwithstanding, this setup would result in Jamaica gifting eight genres of music to the world between 1950 and 2000. These genres are: mento, Nyabinghi, ska, rock steady, reggae, dub, DJ, and dancehall. Of the eight genres, it is significant that the City of Kingston has been responsible for the creation of at least six.
In December 2015, the United Nations Education and Scientific Council (UNESCO) designated the city of Kingston, Jamaica a “Music City” in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. At its core, music and other cultural activities are the primary social and economic activity drivers of the city with the largest inventory of recording studios in the world, it is little wonder that the island is reported as producing the highest volume of recorded music in the world per capita. Despite this designation, the country does not have a designated space where the music can be freely and publicly performed. This issue became the source of a contentious exchange between Roots Reggae singer Chronixx and then Minister of Culture Lisa Hanna in 2014 as the singer flayed the government for being long on talk but completely empty on action when it came to supporting the (reggae) music.
It is difficult to argue against the fact that no other aspect of Jamaica’s culture has contributed more to the country in economic and social terms than its music. One would have thought that the UNESCO declaration in November 2018 that “Reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace and love, to be a global treasure that must be safeguarded,” would have spurred some urgency within the country’s political and economic management realms to concrete action. According to the UNESCO statement, “Reggae’s contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual.”
It appears that these pronouncements have largely amounted to providing great headlines and photo opportunities but has provided no meaningful development to the country or the industry, giving value to Chronixx’s position and that of other critics. I am of the view that much of this inaction comes from the historically held, inherent bias of well-to-do Jamaicans, and those who control the purse strings of capital, to Jamaican music. After all, those who created the music are largely from the dregs of our society and the music created is seen to be just as just as worthless as the status of its creators. It is disappointing that after 73 years, the same biases still exist and while we in Jamaica are dithering, others in far off lands are enriching themselves off Jamaican music.
Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the South Korean Government’s treatment of its own K-Pop industry. Up until the 1960s, South Korea was a desolate, primarily agricultural developing country with, according to the World Bank, a GDP of only US$3.985 billion in 1960. This stands in stark contrast with South Korea today, where it ranked 11th in terms of GDP globally in 2021 at US$1.74 trillion. This rapid economic growth prompts people to question how South Korea managed to do so. Although various factors, like technology and innovation, contributed to this growth, K-pop has played a large role in transforming the South Korean economy. Over the course of 30 years, K-pop has grown tremendously contributing US$12 billion annually as the government treats music in the same way the Americans treat its automobile and banking industries, providing them with protected status. This includes building massive multi-million-dollar concert auditoriums, refining hologram technology, regulating karaoke bars and protecting the interests of the genre’s stars. Not only did the popularity of musical groups increase, but the economy of South Korea also improved.
Richard Hugh Blackford is a Jamaican creative artist residing in the United States.
