Mr Marley, Legend and the impact of music on behaviour
YESTERDAY marked the 43rd anniversary of the passing of Mr Robert Nesta Marley, the Jamaican reggae superstar whose name and work continue to dominate the global entertainment industry.
Perhaps most fortuitously the latest chapter in that world supremacy was opened last week with news that Mr Marley’s album Legend marked its 40th anniversary, having been released on May 8, 1984 — three years after cancer took him from this life at age 36.
For us the fortuitous nature of that news is that it comes at the same time that the country is again engaged in the intermittent debate about the impact of music on human behaviour, particularly schoolchildren.
Education Minister Mrs Fayval Williams reignited that always-heated discussion in her contribution to the sectoral debate as she commented on the increasing incidents of violence in schools.
She pointed to lewd and violent lyrics as among a number of factors influencing rowdy behaviour among students. She has a point, especially her reference to the role that parents, other adults, and communities play in shaping behaviour among children.
Not surprisingly, the usual defenders of the rot that passes for music from some artistes have rushed to criticise the minister, arguing that these artistes are simply commenting on life as they experience it.
The fallacy here is that there are many artistes who have a similar lived experience but have not chosen to glorify violence or demean women, children and the elderly.
Mr Marley was among those who relied on revolutionary, piercing and political social commentary without descending into obscenity.
The upshot is that his work earned him international recognition and respect. He became a voice for the voiceless and oppressed; a catalyst for progressive change. It also won him a raft of awards, among them the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations; the Order of Merit, Jamaica’s third-highest national honour; and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
During last week’s recognition of the Legend anniversary we were reminded that it is the best-selling reggae album of all time, with more than 18 million in sales and streaming equivalent units in the United States. This year Legend was certified 15-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and a few months ago, after the release of One Love, the Bob Marley biopic, Legend leapt to number 17 on Billboard’s 200 chart, after registering 30,000 units in sales and streams for the week ending February 22.
On the Legend anniversary, Dancehallmag writer Dani Mallick told us that just over a week ago Billboard’s sales tracker Luminate showed that the album shifted 19,000 units, including 4,000 copies in pure album sales. “This placed it at number 37 on the Billboard 200 chart dated May 11. It has spent 833 weeks on the all-genre listing, making it the second album, after Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (990 weeks), to hit more than 14 years on that chart,” the article said.
Legend also continues to dominate the Billboard Reggae Albums chart dated May 11, having spent 226 weeks on the list and holding the number 1 spot for all but one of them.
That is just one album from an artiste who never saw it fit to be coarse in his musical expression.
Think on that.