Cut `n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music

by Dick Hebdige

First published in 1987. This is a book about the music of the Caribbean - from calypso and ska through to Reggae and Caribbean club culture.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Cultural, Art

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Richard 'Dick' Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist most commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and subcultural resistance against the mainstream of society.

Hebdige received his M.A. from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, United Kingdom. He is best known for his influential book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, originally published in 1979. He has been teaching in art schools since the mid-1970s. He served as the Dean of Critical Studies and the Director of the experimental writing program at the California Institute of the Arts before going to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is currently a professor of film and media studies and art.

Hebdige's Subculture: The Meaning of Style builds on earlier work at Birmingham on youth subcultures. While much of this research was concerned with the relation between subcultures and social class in postwar Britain, Hebdige saw youth cultures in terms of a dialogue between Black and white youth. He argues that punk emerged as a mainly white style when Black youth became more separatist in the 1970s in response to discrimination in British society. Whereas previous research described a homology between the different aspects of a subcultural style (dress, hairstyle, music, drugs), Hebdige argues that punk in London in 1976-77 borrowed from all previous subcultures and its only homology was chaos. In making this argument he was drawing on the early work of Julia Kristeva who also found such subversion of meaning in French poets such as Mallarmé and Lautréamont.

Hebdidge also wrote Cut 'n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music (1987) on Caribbean music and identity, and Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things (1988) a book of essays that includes some further thoughts about punk.

In 2008 he contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky.

Reviews

[Dani Dányi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says it does: a three part history of jamaican and caribbean music in the Indies and Britain, up until 1986. Plenty of names and such to look up and listen to, with some useful and some less useful analysis, sometimes digging deeper into the subcultures' internal affairs and disputes than I find relevant, but overall a thorough, involved, though slightly aloof guide. Too bad Hebdige left off at the 86 mark, there would have been plenty to cover with later developments of 90s caribbean-inspired music.

[stephen]

interesting. in that breezy hebdige kinda way. you know, the sort of way that makes you think "i should have been in london in the 1970s" because that was what brought these various elements into simultaneity so that the archaeology of dub made sense to pursue. chicago 2007 environments that might send you into archaeological mode are not as cool. o no they aren't. certainly a smarter book than many of its parallels--like "last night a dj saved my life"--which in the end i liked but only after slogging through a seemingly interminable defensive introduction that explains why we who wrote this are not interested in Theory because we are Way More Authentic than are the Pointy Heads who are.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

another one of my favorite books by hebdige. any fan of punk or ska (especially 2nd wave & onward) should read this book to get some critical & social context of the class & culture breakdown of those movements in the UK, & their Jamaican predecessors.

[Hex75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Che roba strana: un libro di uno dei principali studiosi britannici di sottoculture è da anni un oggetto semi-irreperibile perchè uscito solamente in edicola come allegato alla rivista Mucchio Selvaggio (RIP) negli anni '80.
Ed è davvero un peccato: praticamente un bignami della storia della musica giamaicana, "Cut'N'Mix" parte dall'arrivo degli schiavi nelle isole caraibiche e arriva a metà anni '80 passando per la nascita dei genri musicali locali, per i soundsystem, lo ska, il rocksteady, il reggae, il dub fino alle ultime (per allora) evoluzioni; Hbdige non dimentica mai di fornire il giusto contesto sociale e politico attorno a queste musiche e di riportare la voce dei protagonisti, e si sente la sua passione per i generi trattati.
In definitiva -se lo trovate- un'ottima introduzione all'isola la cui influenza sulla musica è impossibile da sottovalutare.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

a fairly straight-forward history that sometimes comes perilously close to the dreaded MUSIC JOURNALISM - the culture and identity themes are not as well developed as in hebdige's subculture: the meaning of style.

saves the day however, with engaging and more detailed discussion of british sound system culture of late 70s/early 80s. i still like hebdige!

[Dan Sharber · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a great little book! it's short but full of great information and a fantastic list of songs to check out as you read. highly recommend if you have been interested in reggea but bored by the over-played-ness of bob marley and with no other idea where to start, this book is for you. it's like a companion piece for all the great trojan box sets. good stuff.