Words: 1785
My theme is danceable music because of my growing concern to the negative impacts this type of music has brought upon the Jamaican youth population. The intention of this project is to investigate and expose the effects of danceable music towards the Jamaican youth population. I am personally interested in this theme because I enjoy music very much and being in the music club at my school has influenced me to explore different genres of music. I am academically interested in this theme as I am currently attending afternoon classes at the Edna Manley School of Music.
This theme also relates to my work-related interest because I would like to become a musician in the future, and as a future role model I want to give a positive contribution to my country. For my reflective, I have composed a narrative piece entitled; “Clack’s Downfall”. The theme is brought out through the main character, ‘Selects’ whose life was led in the wrong path after being negatively influenced by danceable music. This genre was the most appropriate medium for me to fully express the changes in the life of the main character.
The purpose of this project is to investigate and expose the effects of danceable USIA towards the Jamaican youth population. The intended audiences are the Jamaican adolescents, ages 14-17 that are exposed to this type of music to remind them to never forget who they are as well as to the parents to guide and help the teens to the right path. The general context of this project portrays young people who use danceable music as a ‘Bible’ to guide their lives rather than Just another genre of music listened for enjoyment.
Meaning they forget about their original personalities and try to emulate the characteristics described in the ‘danceable world’, whether it is he actions being sang about or using a danceable artist as a role model. The specific context of the prose in this project is about a teenage girl who had the potential to have a successful future but threw it away after being negatively influenced by danceable music. Clack’s Downfall The dark room she laid in night after night was now to be called her home for years to come.
With mistakes Selects now lives to regret, she has 25 years to sit and wonder, what would her life have been had her actions been different. Selects Martin was a short, light colored, frizzy hair, nerdy girl. She carried a draw string bag pack, huge glasses like those from the ass’s and all her uniforms were double her size. She wasn’t a people person, always preferred to stick by herself, especially since every time she went in a crowd, people would step a distance away from her.
Above all of this, Selects was intelligent and outspoken when it came to school work, she always maintained good grades and was seen as a young girl with a bright future by her teachers. That all changed as the ninth grade arrived. Danville, a dark brown colored, collie hair, curvy girl who wore short, tight uniforms was practically the opposite of Selects. She did very poorly in academics and had a nasty attitude to her teachers. She always walked with a group of girls who went everywhere she did and they would sit all day and talk about the last party they attended.
Everyone seemed to like them though, especially the boys. Miff Tries, did social ago shot toted menu! A bare tings ago swan man,” said Danville as she boasted to her friends in the bathroom, “hussy all Prince, I going mad him head toted. ” Selects, coming from one of the bathroom stalls, overheard the girls talking. She was ‘ not very fund of these arils because she knew they were bad news. “As a member of the key club society, I would prefer if that type of behavior was not displayed at our social, thank you,” said vibrated with music and the students rushed to the gates to claim their positions.
Selects had never attended a social before and what she overheard the girls saying this morning aroused her curiosity. She decided to Just go and observe what would take place. “Bruckbruckbruckbruckbruck I dung!!!! ” was what met Clack’s ears as she stepped inside the hall. The students were gyrating like wild animals against ACH other and the excitement in their eyes as they danced was shocking to Selects. As she stood and observed the students, she wanted to feel as alive as they did.
After about half an hour, Selects felt so comfortable and vibrant in the music that she started to ‘church rock since that’s the only dance she knew. Being so caught up, she ended up staying for the entire function. When the social was over, she headed straight through the school gate because she now realized she was going to get home late. When she arrived at the bus stop, she noticed that Danville and her rinds were there too waiting for their usual ‘hype’ bus. After about twenty minutes, there came a bus approaching the bus stop, more colorful than butterflies and belting music loud enough to cause an instant headache.
With her two hands over her ears, Selects followed the girls as they entered the bus since this was her only option as she was already late. School children were packed in the bus as tight as sardines and every boy had a girl in his lap and some even two. Selects couldn’t even hold on to anything as the bus moved off immediately. “Gal siding, siding, siding!! ” as one of the songs she heard, and as it played, the girls Jumped up and down in the boys’ laps and gyrated all over them. Some of the songs even uttered expletives and descriptive sexual content and the students couldn’t care less.
This experience was new to Selects and she was now beginning to like danceable music to the extent where it became her favorite genre. She started to go to parties and ignore her school work and her manners to persons she encountered with started to deteriorate. After three months, Selects and the girls she was never fond of became good friends and she was a whole new person. IOW Selects, huh know she sum like idiot gal a call up huh name bout how huh soft and a bare mouth huh eave” Danville approached Selects saying one afternoon. Eh, I going deal wide hear toted, whew she name? ” Selects said with her face in a screw. “Muss Yankee or sums like so,” Danville replied with an unsure look. Mime man me know hard,” Selects remarked with a smirk, “meek we link up disc evening and thump hard up. Show hard who a did B-A-D-D-E-S-T. ” That evening became the day Selects would regret for the rest of her life. A fight was started which resulted in a girl being brutally beaten and stabbed. She was sent to the hospital in critical condition with a stab wound to the head.
It was later revealed that the girl attacked was even the wrong target and Selects was pointed out as being involved in the attack. She was sent to spend 25 years in a Juvenile correctional center among girls far worse than her. Miff a bathing time menu babes! ” said her fellow inmate, waking up Selects to her daily nightmare. The narrative piece, ‘Clack’s Downfall’ tells the story a teenage girl whose lifestyle changed dramatically after being negatively influenced by danceable music.
Linguistic theatres are creative attributes incorporated in many literary pieces and were also evident in this piece. The two evident were language registers and dialectal variations. The language register used in the piece was a casual one. This was brought out by the character, ‘Danville’ as she spoke to her close friends in the bathroom about the upcoming school social, she said, Miff Tries, did social ago shot toted menu! A bare tings ago swan man…. ” The casual register was also used by the main character’s inmate at the end of the story where she said to Selects, Miff a bathing time menu babes!
These were identified as a casual registers since they were conversations between acquaintances that were comfortable with each other and had less concern for the use of polite expressions. Dialectal variation was evident in the piece by the main character, ‘Selects’. This is because in the first part of the narrative, she used the Standard Jamaican English by saying, “As a member of the key club society, I would prefer if that type of behavior was not displayed at our social, thank you,” as she addressed the girls after overhearing their conversation in the bathroom.
This indicated that this was the language Selects preferred as it presented her literacy and education and also expressed her dislike of the girl’s conduct. The main character also uses Creole towards the end of the piece as she becomes more drawn into the danceable culture through danceable music. An example of this is when she expresses her violent intentions to her friends as she said, “meek we link up disc evening and thump hard up, show hard who a did B-A-D-D-E-S- T. ” This expresses how the character is now comfortable with the Creole language and has become violent due to influences from the danceable field.
In conclusion, language registers and dialectal variations in the piece helped to highlight the changes in behavior and language on the main character’s personality after being influenced by the danceable genre. Format of Presentation Introduction:- Theme Research topic Definition Issues:- The music encourages violence, sexual promiscuity, and multiple sex partners The music glorifies disrespect to authority Few emerging artists sing conscious music Evaluation of Sources:- ‘The effect of danceable genre on adolescent sexual and violent behavior in Jamaica; A public concern’ written by Alexia D.
Crawford ‘The effects of danceable on Jamaican young people’ written by Snidely John ‘Dancer’s Redemption’ written by Cecilia Campbell-Livingston Challenges Conclusion From this assignment, I have learnt that according to valid sources, there are mainly negative effects of danceable music on Jamaican adolescents. It encourages violence, sexual promiscuity, multiple sex partners and the music glorifies disrespect to authorities. I also learnt that not all artists are guilty of this type of negative encouragement as there are few that aim to sing conscious lyrics and uplift Jamaica.