Jamaican Government Thinks People Still Listen To The Radio, Bans Music About Drugs Or Crime

Jamaicans are being asked to fund futility with their tax dollars. Radio still exists, but it's nowhere near as powerful or relevant as it was three or four decades ago. A ban like this doesn't make sense for several reasons, but the most obvious reason is that it will only protect" people who listen to the radio, a steadily dwindling demographic pretty much everywhere in the world.

Musicians in Jamaica are outraged after the country's broadcasting regulator announced a new ban on content that glorifies drugs and crime.

The Jamaican Broadcasting Commission said in a statement released Tuesday that the ban reinforces their commitment to keeping the airwaves free of harmful content given the important role traditional media still play as agents of socialisation."

Jamaica regularly ranks as one of the deadliest country's per capita in the Americas and is rife with gang violence.

I will say this about the directive [PDF]: it at least recognizes the Jamaican government can only control certain content sources - that being the public airwaves the government regulates.

Other than that, there's nothing in here that will do anything more than provoke anger, mockery, or angry mockery. This directive amends the existing regulations - ones that forbid the transmission of media likely to incite violence or criminal activity" - to include some very specific forms of lyrical content.

AND WHEREAS there is currently a proliferation of recordings with lyrics that promote, glorify and/or reference the criminal activity of scamming, through the use of urban slangs and phrases such as chop di line", chop the line", chop e line", pon e line", bang line", chop", choppins", choppa", choppa phone", banga", banga phone", burner phone" and client";

AND WHEREAS the use of these words/slangs might also have meanings that are unrelated to scamming, however when in connection to making money, wire transfers, acquiring wealth (property, expensive cars, jewellery), and a lavish lifestyle, or used in combination with other words such as leads, lead list/sheet", bank/foreign account", food", wallet" and purse", scamming is very likely to be the connotation...

The directive also says bleeping the words or replacing them with similar-sounding words aren't acceptable workarounds. And it says the government is free to ban other content that isn't explicitly referenced in this directive, which accompanies a mandate stating licensees should be proactive in removing content from playlists.

Licensees are reminded that in determining suitability for broadcast, they must consider the overall theme/message of the content and not only specific and individual words.

Some artists are understandably angry. There's still a radio market for music, even if it's only a mere shadow of its former powerhouse self. Then there are those who see this ban attempt as more comical than threatening, given the many, many alternatives to radio airplay artists use to reach listeners.

Romeich, a Jamaican musician and entertainment executive, took to social media to question the ban.

While I understand why people feel like this and even I don't agree with glorifying guns or any use of any drug at all, we can't stop the creatives (artistes) from singing about what they see around them or grew around," Romeich wrote on Instagram. Are you going to ban Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud and other platforms where the same people have the same access to the same songs?"

These are good questions the Jamaican government doesn't appear to have answers for. And the government should be content with the fact that it doesn't have all the answers, since one of the answers would be a move to directly regulate foreign social media service and music platforms - something the government definitely shouldn't attempt to do.

Other artists didn't even bother to ask questions. To artists who have utilized YouTube and Soundcloud for years, this is a non-event.

Skeng, a popular rapper who recently collaborated with Nicki Minaj, has racked up tens of millions of views on YouTube with his tracks about the streets of Jamaica like Gvnman Shift" and Gang Bang." After news of the ban, Skeng tweeted a yawn emoji with a 21 second clip from his track Rain Like Hell."

The government says it's obligated to keep the public airwaves clean. Maybe so, but it's limiting artistic expression under the theory that violent content is to blame for violent acts. Glorification of violence, crime, and drug use is in the eye of the beholder. And it's that beholder that will decide who gets to listen to what from now on.