Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica

This work represents a first of its kind in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region. A key product of regional and international popular culture, the music video, is examined in relation to its key consumers, adolescents. The empirical data generated from the research project points to the ways in which music videos serve different functions and exert a variety of influences, some quite positive, on the lives of young Jamaicans, particularly as it relates to their sexual attitudes and practices. The ways in which gender, age, family structure and economic conditions mediate the nature of the relationships and how adolescents engage with music videos are explicated, as too the manner in which access to information communication technologies influence how much and what types of television content are consumed. Coming out of focus group sessions, in-depth interviews and a survey it becomes clear that Jamaican adolescents live in a highly sexualized society. The music video is just one agent of this sexualization. Several others co-exist alongside videos. Together they work to normalize early initiation of sex and to desensitize young persons to unhealthy and or potentially harmful sexual practices. Yet independent of other variables, there is no gainsaying the influence of music videos on adolescent sexuality in this island. This is borne out in the numerous and persistent levels of direct correlations between heavy consumption of music videos and sexual attitudes and behaviours. Driven by the views of the adolescents and findings from the survey, Jamaican dancehall music and videos come in for substantial attention in this book, specifically the ways in which heavy consumption of this genre influences them into a culture of sex. Based on the interest in youth culture and on issues relating to media, sex and sexuality internationally, coupled with the popularity of Jamaica s reggae and dancehall music across much of the Caribbean and even in specific sections of the wider world, this book s usefulness extends far beyond Jamaica. It is timely, given the international focus on Jamaica. Independent reviewers have signaled the value of this book to university courses across several disciplines as well as to more general readership. Importantly therefore, Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica, helps to satisfy an identified need. It brings a fresh perspective and understanding to the relationships between young people, music and media. We hear the actual voices of adolescents on a range of different music genres, including hip hop, R&B, soca, reggae and dancehall and related issues such as identity, sex and the role of family and church. The triangulated nature of the research work, using qualitative and quantitative tools, captures some of the nuanced and multi-layered nature of the relationships.