Dancehall Music Is Having Negative Impacts on Students

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Dancehall Music is Having Negative Impacts on Students Dancehall music is a very important part of the Jamaican culture. In Canada and the United States, Dancehall is becoming very popular amongst various adults and students. Studies have shown that the majority of Dancehall listeners are not aware of the messages that are portrayed in the songs that they listen to; furthermore, theses listeners would argue that Dancehall music has no impact on their lives; however, many studies have proven otherwise. Dancehall music has a negative impact on Students as it sends and promotes negative messages of violence, sex and drugs. First of all, violence is a predominate theme throughout the genre of dancehall music and consequently influences students to behave violently and deem it as acceptable behaviour. Vybz Kartel is a good example of an artist who promotes violence in his music. His song entitled, Gunshot, contains a lot of messages that involve various violent acts. For example, his lyrics contain phrases like “Me an me guns roll deep like subs. AKs and Slugs with black leather gloves. Guinness and red bull with straight big buds. Cah real badman don't hang out at clubs.” In these few lines, one could perceive guns violence as being popular, especially to students who look up to Vybz Kartel as a role model. This negative message can easily influence student’s behaviors as they begin to believe that this is acceptable behaviour and that they can be as violent as they like and even encourage more violent acts as well. This song leaves an unconstructive message to the student’s hearts and minds. Also, the more the students listen to this song, the more their actions and attitudes will be influenced and persuaded to be involved in gun violence. In addition, Movado is another artist that promotes a lot of negative messages to students and other listeners. When the
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