‘You can get it if you really want?’: The use of Caribbean music genres in Death in Paradise

Abstract

Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie and filmed on Guadeloupe, British/French co-production Death in Paradise (2011–present) frequently uses reggae, amongst other perceived local styles, as its diegetic and non-diegetic music. Reggae is historically a music of resistance, specifically resistance to oppression by White colonial power structures. That a British/French co-production uses reggae to reinforce an elided pan-Caribbean location featuring a White, male, British or Irish DI in charge of a local Black police force can be read as stereotypical. When added to a British/French series such as this, with what can be read as colonialist discourses, the readings can become problematic. This article argues that, rather than simply being part of the series’ banal diegetic nationalism (i.e. the series’ flagging itself as a particular identity/-ties), the use of Caribbean music genres in this context can be read as subverting their original anti-colonialist context and both supporting and exacerbating a (perceived) colonialist reading for the series.