Abstract
Arguably, Kingston is the loudest city in the Anglophone Caribbean and Jamaica, whose national instrument is the sound system, is the noisiest country on the planet. This chapter seeks to analyse decades of observations regarding the historical problems around ‘noise’, entertainment, and work in Jamaica where the entertainment sector has been under siege and its promoters, proprietors and patrons have existed in an antagonistic relationship with the state and enforcers of the law charged with protecting lives. Indeed, the use of force by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to regulate entertainment outweighs its use in any other sector or profit-making enterprise, except in where cases private security measures are arranged. Viewed as a case historically, the entertainment sector reveals a thriving culture of enforcement by security forces which has resulted in high degrees of in/security. Focused on the analysis of culture, in particular, popular culture, Caribbean culture, and cultural studies, a significant portion of my work on Jamaican popular culture, documented in the book Dancehall: From Slave Ship to Ghetto (2010), has engaged in historically grounded, geographically sensitive, and culturally comparative work. I extend that work here to examine the politics of noise and in/security around Jamaican music.
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