How Dancehall and Rap Define Today’s Youth

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The music we listen to reflects our innermost feelings and our relationship with society, and if society does not offer opportunities for jobs and a meaningful life, then music won’t offer narratives that reflect hope and opportunity for loving relationships and acceptance into society. That is why we have hip hop culture infiltrating T&T. That’s why so many teenagers listen to violent dancehall and rap music that terrifies those of us who lock ourselves away from a certain faction in society. If music does have a “reinforcing effect” as scholars such as Dennis Howard have observed, then society must take responsibility for this violent music, not the angry youth who listen to it. Music, movie and TV producers have a choice about the products they create and dump on society. Radio stations have a choice about the music they play. They feed a vibe; they push a vibe. They batter lost souls with a mind-numbing, relentless force that encourages violence and drug use.