Abstract
The Christian sound system movement in Britain represents an exchange between ‘church hall’ and ‘dancehall’ which started in the late 1990s. The hidden history of this unique movement is uncovered through interviews with members of ‘Shekinah Sound Ministries’ and ‘His Majesty’s Sound System’. The narrative highlights the importance of the MC, selector and engineer as the primary practitioners involved in ‘ministering the music’ to the audience. The controversies involved in the Christianisation of the ‘dubplate’ are discussed as well as the criticisms directed at the movement for using reggae music as a tool for evangelism in the early years. The essay offers a religious cultural analysis of sound systems and suggests five main theological themes which characterise the Christian deviation. This chapter proposes that gospel sound systems in Britain contribute to the wider narrative of black British culture and provides an important insight into the religious aspect of bassline culture.
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Notes
- 1.
Gospel reggae is a genre of music that mixes reggae rhythms with Christian-themed lyrics.
- 2.
By the term ‘gospel sound system’ or ‘Christian sound system’, I am referring to a sound system that plays gospel music or songs that advocate a lifestyle and worldview that is in line with the Christian faith. Throughout this chapter, these terms will be used interchangeably. Sound systems are also referred to simply as ‘sounds’.
- 3.
Robert Beckford, Jesus Dub: Theology, Music and Social Change (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), p. 4.
- 4.
Ibid., pp. 145–49.
- 5.
Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (Abingdon: Routledge, 2002); Dick Hebdige, Cut ‘n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music (Abingdon: Routledge, 1987); Simon Jones, Black Culture, White Youth: The Reggae Tradition from JA to UK (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1988).
- 6.
William ‘Lez’ Henry, What the Deejay Said: A Critique from the Street! (London: Nu-Beyond Limited, 2006); Les Back, New Ethnicities and Urban Culture: Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives (Abingdon: Routledge, 1996); Christopher Partridge, Dub in Babylon: The Emergence and Influence of Dub Reggae in Jamaica and Britain from King Tubby to Post Punk (London: Equinox Publishing, 2010).
- 7.
Rico (Rico Fogarty), author’s interview 6 December 2018, London, England.
- 8.
As stated on their website: www.shekinahsoundministries.com.
- 9.
David Dabydeen, James Gilmore, and Cecily Jones (eds), The Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 193.
- 10.
Redz (Jason O Shea), author’s interview, 30 November 2018, London, England.
- 11.
Spanna (Barry Panton), author’s interview, 9 November 2018, Birmingham, England.
- 12.
Steve Alexander Smith, British Black Gospel: The Foundations of This Vibrant UK Sound (Huddersfield: Monarch Books, 2009), p. 93.
- 13.
‘Majesty’ by Michelle Christian is a cover of a popular church hymn. It was released on the Shekinah label in 1998.
- 14.
Rico, author’s interview, 2018.
- 15.
This era was characterised by keyboard driven computerised reggae instrumental beats from the mid-1980s into the 1990s. The genre became known as ‘reggae dancehall’ and was later termed as ‘raggamuffin’ or simply ‘ragga’ in the UK.
- 16.
Spanna, author’s interview, 2018.
- 17.
Efrem (Efrem Buckle), author’s interview, 30 November 2018, London, England.
- 18.
Marky G (Mark Henry), author’s interview, 24 November 2018, London, England.
- 19.
Redz, author’s interview, 2018.
- 20.
Miller (Michael Miller), author’s interview, 9 November 2018, Birmingham, England.
- 21.
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (London: Verso, 1993).
- 22.
Dick Hebdige, Cut’n’ Mix.
- 23.
Lloyd Bradley, Sounds like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital (London: Profile Books, 2013); Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (London: Routledge, 2002).
- 24.
Beckford, Jesus Dub.
- 25.
As stated on their website: www.hismajestysound.com.
- 26.
Miller, author’s interview, 2018.
- 27.
Redz, author’s interview, 2018.
- 28.
Henry, What the Deejay Said, p. 37.
- 29.
Rico, author’s interview, 2018.
- 30.
Beckford, Jesus Dub, p. 147.
- 31.
Spanna, author’s interview, 2018.
- 32.
Redz, author’s interview, 2018.
- 33.
Paul Gilroy, ‘One Nation Under a Groove: The Cultural Politics of “Race” and Racism in Britain’, in David Goldberg (ed.), Anatomy of Racism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), pp. 263–82; Louis Chude-Sokei, ‘The Sound of Culture: Dread Discourse and Jamaican Sound Systems’, in Joseph K. Adjaye and Adrianne R. Andrews (eds), Language, Rhythm and Sound: Black Popular Cultures into the Twenty-First Century (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), pp. 185–202; Henry, What the Deejay Said; idem, ‘Reggae, Rasta and the Role of the Deejay in the Black British Experience’, Contemporary British History, 26: 3 (2012), 355–73.
- 34.
Beckford, Jesus Dub, p. 147.
- 35.
Spanna, ‘Mr Blair’ (Shekinah Music, 1998).
- 36.
Margie Tolstoy, ‘Jewish-Christian Relations’, in Nicholas De Lange and Miri Frued-Kandel (eds), Modern Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 435.
- 37.
Beckford, Jesus Dub, p. 147.
- 38.
Spanna, author’s interview, 2018.
- 39.
Juliet Fletcher, ‘Gospel Music and the Black Church’, in Joe Aldred and Keno Ogbo, The Black Church in the Twenty-First Century (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2010), pp. 63–78.
- 40.
Efrem, author’s interview, 2018.
- 41.
Miller, author’s interview, 2018.
- 42.
Kortright Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’: Explorations in Caribbean Emancipatory Theology (New York: Orbis Books, 1990).
- 43.
Ibid., p. 53.
- 44.
Beckford, Jesus Dub.
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Tracey, C. (2021). Sound Systems and the Christian Deviation. In: Henry, W.'., Worley, M. (eds) Narratives from Beyond the UK Reggae Bassline. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55161-2_14
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