Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture

New printing - with new introduction by Duro Olowu - of this definitive study and essential guide to Jamaican Dancehall in the 1980s featuring hundreds of exclusive photographs with accompanying text, interviews and biographies.

This book captures a previously unseen era of musical culture fashion and lifestyle. With unprecedented access to the incredibly vibrant music scene during this period, Beth Lesser’s photographs are a unique way into a previously hidden part of Jamaican culture. Dancehall is at the centre of Jamaican musical and cultural life. From its roots in Kingston in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1980s, Dancehall has conquered the globe also spreading to the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Europe and beyond.

Dancehall is a culture that encompasses music, fashion, drugs, guns, art, community, technology, and more. Many of today’s music and fashion styles can be traced back to Dancehall culture and continue to be influenced by it today.

Born in the 1950s out of the neighbourhood soundsystems of Kingston, Dancehall grew to its height in the 1980s before a massive influx of drugs and guns made the scene too dangerous for many.

Dancehall is an essential reference book for anyone interested in Reggae, as well as a unique photographic and textual source book of the musical, cultural and political life of Jamaica.

In the early 1980s, as Jamaica was in the throws of political and gang violence, Beth Lesser ventured where few others dared, and this book is a never-before-seen record of the exciting, dangerous and vibrant world of Dancehall. Beth Lesser’s book tells this story from its roots to its heights. Living in Jamaica in the late 70s and early 80s she photographed and documented a cultural explosion as producers, singers, DJs and soundsystems who all made a living out of the slums of Kingston.

About the Authors:

Beth Lesser is a noted music writer. In the early 1980s, as Jamaica was in the throes of political and gang violence, she ventured where few others dared, and produced this book – a unique record of the exciting, dangerous, and vibrant world of Dancehall.

Stuart Baker is the editor of Yo! The Early Days of Hip-Hop 1982-84; Cuba: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music; Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture; Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s; Reggae Soundsystem; Cover Art of Studio One Records; Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York 1989-92; Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti; and Freedom Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965-83. He is also the founder of Soul Jazz Records.