ENTITY · PUBLICATION

Noises in the Blood

Well supported

Carolyn Cooper's 'Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the Vulgar Body of Jamaican Popular Culture' (1993), a foundational academic study that read Jamaican oral and dancehall culture, including slackness and the body, as legitimate gendered cultural expression rather than mere obscenity.

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At a glance

Type: publication
Confidence: Well supported
Era: Open era →

Style, language, faith & wider cultureSociety, politics & receptionEvidence, memory & meta layers

Connections

Watch & listen

Open source ↗

An Insight into Jamaican Music: interview with Carolyn Cooper (Small Axe / sx salon)

WEB · rights discovery only · press source

Small Axe / sx salon reference.

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In stories

Story · Well supportedSlackness and culture: dancehall's long argument with itself

How the fight over 'slack' versus 'conscious' lyrics became dancehall's defining debate.

Debate & reception

How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →

debate

Should the academy study dancehall?

A neutral account of the debate sparked by dancehall scholarship: academic study is defended as overdue validation of a maligned folk expression, and criticised by some as 'elevating vulgarity'. The atlas records the disagreement without endorsing either view. Sources: Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood; Small Axe / sx salon; Jamaica Gleaner/Observer commentary.

Stance: scholarship validating a maligned folk expression vs 'elevating vulgarity' critique