That's exactly what the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica has said, effectively banning all songs, on all public media, that make reference to this now popular act in the Dancehall circle. This ruling was announced by Hopeton Dunn, the commission chairman in no uncertain terms as he said,
There shall not be transmitted through radio or television, any recording, live song or music video which promotes the act of 'daggering' or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of 'daggering'.
However, the ban did not just stop at Daggerin (also spelt Daggering), but has been extended to all songs which employs any type of editing techniques to remove expletives and certain lewd content. This ruling no doubt was spurred by the latest Dancehall song to take the nation by storm, Spice and Vibez Kartel, Rampin Shop (see video here). Dunn continued,
There shall not be transmitted through radio or television or cable services, any audio recording, song or music video which employs editing techniques or bleeping of its original lyrical content,
This action by the Broadcasting Commission, is as a result of much criticism from many circles of the local hit, Rampin Shop and other Dancehall songs now hitting our radio waves. The move was also triggered by mounting pressure that they should be more vigilant at policing the nations airwaves to ensure that radio and television stations don't breach the Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations.
The move by the Broadcasting Commission has been welcomed by many in our society, including organizations such as the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) and the Media Association of Jamaica. No doubt other aspects of the society including the churches, Jamaica Teachers Association and schools and any parents will welcome this move also.
I too am in full support of the Broadcasting Commission to ban the promotion of the activity called Daggerin and songs such Rampin Shop which feature an overdose of sexual references and violence. I find the act, will not call it a dance, of Daggerin to be tasteless and totally barbaric. Some may say it's a part of our culture and people should be free to express themselves, but where do we cross the line? I have watched several videos of Daggerin and after the initial amusement, reality sets in as I stare in disbelief that people really behave like this and go out on the street to behave like... basically savages. The so-called dance moves are not just lewd mimicking of extreme sexual acts, but it look outright dangerous!
Our culture is such that most of our songs make references to violence and sex, but which song out there whether Rock, R&B, Rap, Hip Hop, does not do the same? The truth is almost all songs on the radio these days make references to these two primal behaviour of human, however, while some songs merely allude to them, other songs explicitly outline these acts of violence and sexual behaviour. The latter is what I really have a problem with and songs such as Rompin Shop is one such song that explicitly describe the sexual acts between a couple. Such songs are in my view definitely not fit for public airplay. I will even go further to say that I too agree that no song that has to be edited with a "bleep" should be played on our public stations. I believe that songs should be made airworthy and if an artiste has a hit then he needs to make a radio version (clean version) and a CD version (dirty version) to suit each audience. If this was done we wouldn't still be having the embarrassing situation of radio stations having to apologise and discipline disc jockeys for the one or two indecent parts of a song that escaped the bleep.
Stations have to please their audience in order to survive, however pleasing the audience does not mean only playing what a part of the audience likes, but also minimising the content that offends a considerable portion of their general audience. Responsibility in content delivery is even more important when such a large part of the listening ear are the impressionable among us, our teens, our children and those who do not have the mental capability not to act on these corrupting messages. Artistes and radio/television stations as well as the printed media need to be responsible and mindful of their audience and their social responsibility.
However, although I agree with the Broadcasting Commission's move to ban Daggering content and songs that require editing for radio play, I wonder why it took so long? It is their job to police what is good for public broadcast as prescribed by Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations. So why did they have to wait on public outcry and pressure for them to take a step to ban such material? What have they been doing and what are they doing, for my hard earned taxpayer dollars? The Broadcasting Commission need to pull up their socks and this incident really shows them up.
I think I have said quite a mouthful on this topic. So what are your views on this recent move by the Broadcasting Commission? Also you can vote at the bottom of this page.
Reference: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090207/lead/lead1.html
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