Sample 6 and Passa Passa!!!!!!!

Below I have posted two videos: one displays a Passa Passa and the other shows the group Sample 6 dancing (picture of Sample 6 to the left). The song that Sample 6 is dancing to is an example of a call and response form that I have mentioned earlier in one of my previous blog entries. Sample 6 is a group of 6 men who are Jamaican and can really dance. They dance to any reggae song and attend a lot of events. One event that they attended that I was also at was the annual Labor Day Parade held in New York City. This parade is where everyone who is of Caribbean descent and those who aren’t come to dance around floats. Most floats that moved up “The Parkway” in Brooklyn represent a different part of the Caribbean. There is a Panamanian float, a Trinidad & Tobago float, there were three Haitian floats, and of course a Jamaican float. The Jamaican float is always the most popular and usually goes at the end. Around the float the scene is like a mob crowd that hardly anyone can move and sometimes people get hurt. The reason for all of this commotion is the fact that they have Sample 6 on top of the float dancing to the reggae music that is blasting, and also Beenie man who is also a famous reggae singer on the float singing the songs. Sample 6 is known for their extreme dance moves.

Passa Passa is another well-known form of Jamaican music and representation. It is a weekly street party that is equivalent to a block party. It originated in Kingston, Jamaica and still goes strong to this day. Passa Passa has drawn many professional and amateur dancers into the media spotlight as the event is typically videotaped for mass DVD distribution. During Passa Passa you can catch a lot of out of control dancing where people are just having fun at all hours of the night.

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PASSA PASSA

Passa Passa is a weekly street party that started in Kingston, Jamaica. It is performed to dancehall music. It has migrated throughout the Caribbean. It can be compared and simulated to a block party. The Passa Passa usually gets started around 1am and has been known to continue straight through until 8am.

Providence Club

Last night I went to a club in Providence (I wish to keep the name anonymous) with three other friends, that played very little reggae and dancehall music. This was surprising to me because in Norton, it is as if all I hear is Jamaican music. This led me to believe that maybe it is the group of people I hang out with and associate myself with that music that brings on this generalization that everyone in the New England area is familiar with Jamaican/reggae/dancehall music. I have bracketed myself within this type of music that I have failed to realize that only within my “world” is this type of music dominant. Throughout my study with this project and taking an anthropological stance on the matter, I didn’t open my eyes to the fact that I should have gone outside my boundaries of Norton to look for a broader and rounder take on the subject. When I was in New York in February of 2007, a little less than a year ago, my friends and I went to a club in lower Manhattan. There it was reggae all day everyday. In the club in Providence, it was hip hop and rap. At the rare times when they did play a reggae song, two of my friends danced the traditional way that one would normal dance to that type of song. One song which I remember to be “Dutty Wind”, had a lot of people staring at them because they didn’t know how to dance like that. One guy wanted to dance with one of my friends but couldn’t because he didn’t know how to handle that type of dancing. This experience opened my eyes to the fact that I can not generalize my studies and opinions on area that I have never ventured into.