In Search of Suburbia
I am left wondering if these songs are in any way relevant to the modern Bahamas, and by extension to Suburbia. The continued message seems to be that if the Bahamas could revert to the way it was when these artists were younger then everything would be all right. This is not realistic. I wonder if the artists themselves are aware of what they are saying. For example would Mr. Butler return to a time before electricity? Is Mr. Davis suggesting he will throw out his television? Would Ms. Emily relinquish her car or anyone their inside toilet? Of course not. The reality is that the ‘island life’ referenced by these artists simply does not exist anymore. Perhaps this is the very reason young people ‘don’t like Bahamian Music.’
Obviously young people still listen to music and by implication it would seem that they listen to ‘foreign music.’ But when we say ‘Bahamian Music’ what do we mean? What makes music Bahamian? Some describe it as music made by Bahamians. This definition sounds logical, but it is not the accepted definition. As ridiculous as the concept sounds, I am led to believe that Bahamians can produce music that isn’t Bahamian. Take the example of the musical group ‘Spoken Tonz.’ The group is made up completely of Bahamians, the majority of which hail from suburbia and they have produced several songs out of their own pocket and put together a CD. While they describe their music as universal, perhaps their output to date can best be defined as an energetic blend of spoken word poetry, Hip Hop and R&B fusion: the very lingua franca of suburbia.
While it is true that all of the radio stations in the country play some degree of ‘Bahamian music,’ only Island FM uses this as their dominant format, going so far to describe itself on air as the ‘best thing that ever happened to Bahamian Music’ and the ‘home of Bahamian Music.’ Therefore you can understand why ‘Spoken Tonz’ felt that if any radio station in the country would play their music that it would be Island FM. This thought however, proved to be mistaken. In their account of the story after appearing on an Island FM morning show and having some of their music played, the Disc Jockey ‘got into trouble’ for doing so without proper clearance. Later it seems that some Bahamian detectors went off on red alert, as ‘Spoken Tonz’ was clearly told, ‘We don’t play this type of Music.’