Bonadio and Khan on Remix, Reuse, and Reggae: Creativity and Copyright in Jamaican Music @CityUniLondon

Enrico Bonadio, City University, London, City Law School, and Bryan Khan, University of the West Indies, have published Remix, Reuse and Reggae: Creativity and Copyright in Jamaican Music in Enrico Bonadio - Chen Zhu (eds.), Music Borrowing and Copyright Law (Enrico Bonadio and Chen Zhu eds., Hart Publishing 2023. Here is the abstract.

What makes the story of the rise of reggae music so fascinating are the circumstances in which the genre evolved. It seems to have been birthed by a cosmic alignment of the right social and cultural factors, rather than an anticipatable evolution of existing cultural institutions. Unlike neighbouring islands, which had hosted vibrant creole musical cultures since the nineteenth century, a formal music scene was not a major component of the Jamaican cultural landscape until the mid-twentieth century. And the contributions to global culture made by the Caribbean Island of Jamaica are remarkable given the country’s size. The country has birthed many musical genres which have made a mark on popular culture, including mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, and dancehall, and these genres have in turn influenced a wide range of musical subcultures from American hip-hop to British drum and bass, and beyond. Against this broad history, this chapter explores the factors that facilitated the creative processes of Jamaican music scene, and its remarkable rise as global cultural force. Specifically, it provides a discussion on the history of Jamaican music, with a focus on the social and creative norms of remix and reuse. In doing so, the chapter features numerous examples of Jamaican songs.

The text of the essay is not available from SSRN.