About
Dancehall owes its moniker to the Jamaican dance halls in which popular Jamaicans recordings were played by local sound systems. These began in the late 1940s among people from the inner city of Kingston, Jamaica who were not able to participate in dances uptown. Social and political changes in late-1970s Jamaica were reflected in the shift away from the more internationally oriented roots reggae towards a style geared more towards local consumption, and in tune with the music that Jamaicans had experienced when sound systems performed live. Michael Manley's socialist People's National Party (PNP) government had been replaced with Edward Seaga's right wing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Themes of social injustice, repatriation and the Rastafari movement were overtaken by lyrics about dancing, violence, and sexuality.
