In Search of Suburbia
This episode should not be misconstrued to mean that Island FM has a problem with modern musical trends, the station has no problem with hip-hop / rap music. For a casual listen to the stations programming reveals that they will gladly play Haitian and Latin American rap. However it seems that if a Bahamian were to produce the same music, it would not get played. Maybe when Bahamians produce hip-hop, it is not as ‘exotic’ as when it is performed by other nationalities. I find it incredible that on a station that prides itself for encouraging local music, Bahamians are being rejected for not fully understanding their particularly narrow definition of Bahamian music. In other words, Bahamian Music at Island FM and most everywhere else appears to mean ‘traditional’ Bahamian music, a.k.a. Rake and Scrape, Calypso and Junkanoo, and can’t possibly mean the hip-hop and R&B that young people actually listen to.
Here we see a classic ‘catch-22′: young people are criticized for not embracing ‘Bahamian music’ which is purposely kept in a state that they cannot appreciate. The present popular definition of ‘Bahamian Music’ limits artistic expression and only serves to stagnate the entire art form. Therefore in the process of protecting what is thought to be Bahamian, a generation is disenfranchised from the Bahamian Identity. This narrow-mindedness can be demonstrated over again in various fields, in fact whenever we come across anything labeled ‘true-true Bahamian.’ Thus our ‘Bahamian detectors’ do us a disservice; we are in essence only robbing ourselves.
Where then is Suburbia in the Bahamian Identity? It would appear that it does not exist. Any product of the suburbs can’t really be declared a ‘true-true Bahamian’ as it presently stands. This must change. By our insistence on clinging to the past, the present has been neglected and the future ignored. The definition of what is and what is not Bahamian needs extending to include all those born and raised here and become inclusive of the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Bahamians in general need to realize that the country has changed dramatically in a very short period of time and the only way to survive is not only to cope with that change, but to brace for more changes to come. And if that means throwing away the ‘Bahamian Detector’ in our heads, then so be it.