A Study in Elective Affinity: Music, Religion, Memory: Reggae and Rastafari: a short history; Interpreting songs: notes on methodology; A diachronic analysis of Jamaican reggae charts, 1968-2000; The construction of a musical memory -- Remembering the Past: Slavery and the diaspora: temporal and spatial articulations; The construction of a religious chain of memory -- Revealing the Future: Messianism, between past and future; Hope and redemption; The eschatology as future-present; The construction of a socio-political memory -- From Revelation to Revolution. Rhetoric of oppression and social critique; Only rasta can liberate the people: resistance and revolution -- Conclusion: Time and memory -- Annex 1. List of songs mentioned, by artist -- Annex 2. Albums in the corpus
On the basis of a body of reggae songs from the 1970s and the late 1990s, this book offers a sociological analysis of memory hope and redemption in reggae music