Jamaica Bans Explicit Music

In the early days of rock and roll television stations would not allow Elvis Presley to be filmed below the waist because they felt that his gyrations and hip movements would corrupt the youth.

Thirty years later a young pop star named Michael Jackson took those gyrations and hip movements to another height when he danced with a pelvic thrust that resembled sexual movements.

Twenty-five years later young musicians in Jamaica have taken those same movements and incorporated them into a dance style called daggering.

The Jamaican Broadcasting Commission has determined that this dance style along with the music, called dancehall, that makes use of explicit and violent lyrics are a corrupting influence on the children of Jamaica and they will no longer tolerate such bahavour.

As of Sunday February 8 such music has been banned from all commercial airwaves - radio and television -; the ban applies to songs even if they include bleeps to cover the language. But the ban does not apply to CDs and DVDs as long as they are not used on the airwaves. The ban which came about after numerous reports of complaints about the music and dances takes place immediately.