Women in Jamaican Music

by Heather Augustyn

Overview

As the ubiquitous Jamaican musician Bob Marley once famously sang, "half the story has never been told." This rings particularly true for the little-known women in Jamaican music who comprise significantly less than half of the Caribbean nation's musical landscape. This book covers the female contribution to Jamaican music and its subgenres through dozens of interviews with vocalists, instrumentalists, bandleaders, producers, deejays and supporters of the arts. Relegated to marginalized spaces, these pioneering women fought for their claim to the spotlight amid oppressive conditions to help create and shape Jamaica's musical heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476680958
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.44(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Heather Augustyn is a continuing lecturer in the English department at Purdue Northwest. She has written eight books on ska and Jamaican music and lives in Michigan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 Women in Jamaican Folk Traditions 3

2 Orchestra and Band Leaders and Instrumentalists 10

3 Mento and Calypso 34

4 Jazz 43

5 Ska 56

6 Blue Beat 75

7 Rocksteady 88

8 Reggae 98

9 Dancehall 131

10 Dance 137

11 Champions 147

12 Studio 162

13 Mothers and Wives 170

14 Female Representation in Song Lyrics 191

Chapter Notes 203

Bibliography 209

Index 211

Editorial Reviews

Augustyn looks at the myriad contributions of several generations of women in Jamaican popular music styles...The volume is exhaustively researched, and direct quotes provide firsthand accounts of the impact of these historically undervalued musicians. Augustyn did the foundational research necessary to bring this overlooked output into the canon....recommended”—Choice

From the Publisher