In the past, every now and then we would hear transient plaintive cries echoing in the moral distance and trailing off into obscurity about how disgustingly dirty 'songs' are being played at street dances, on public transport vehicles and occasionally slipping by radio station censors. There have been numerous, short-lived campaigns to stamp out the playing of loud and lewd songs in public. Typically, some music equipment is confiscated and a few tickets are written but, as always, things revert to 'nastiness as usual' within a matter of weeks.

I have had my sensibilities assaulted by the most revolting, nauseating, vertiginous filth imaginable emanating with ear-shattering decibels from passing minibuses packed with young school children who appear unfazed by the cacophonous cesspool swirling around them. I am told that decent passengers dare not protest or attempt to dissuade the driver from playing certain songs or showing triple-x movies because the 'schoolers' threaten to do them bodily harm.

Once upon a time in a land far far away (Jamaica, prior to the 1970s), only a few songs gave a hint of a little naughtiness. However, as our levels of crime, violence, indiscipline and crassness increased, synthesised drums, bass and cymbals provided the background for the most informer-bashing, gay-bashing, 'Babylon'-bashing, filthy lyrics imaginable spewing from screaming and raspy-voiced deejays. Delighted, non-gender specific aficionados of all ages revel in the muck as they writhe, jerk, gyrate and whip themselves into a sexual frenzy under the influence of despicably explicit lyrics.

Continuously enforcing laws

Where was the censorship then? Why weren't the rules and laws enforced continuously? Why doesn't anyone with responsibility ever seem to take notice until things have taken root, spawned a culture of nastiness and become so outrageous that our entire society reels in horror? Why are we always a nation driven by crisis management?

Nasty and violent lyrics have survived and grown because of popular demand from a sub-set of the society acculturated in that sort of 'music'. As far as the rest of society is concerned, it was a matter of complicity and/or capitulation. Some people actually accepted the nastiness as part of our culture and economy. And, others of us surrendered, having been exasperated for years and frustrated by a system so mired in apathy and inertia that nothing gets done until the stink eventually wafts its way to an influential nose.

And so the entertainment industry has failed to monitor itself and now, things are getting done by a government determined to do its best to put a stop to this pervasive and embarrassing explosion of dirty music that seems to know no bounds. 'How low can you go' was obviously the dare that deejays involved in dirty music threw at each other.

Perhaps it's a matter of too much, too late. Even citizens yearning for clean music wonder where the lines will be drawn. Violent lyrics will be banned - will Bob Marley's classic, Talking Blues, get the axe? After all, it contains the verse 'I feel like bombing a church'. What of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires' Dolla Wine, with hips being thrust forward on the refrain 'Dollah, dollah, dollah' - will it be banned also?

Will this new moral revival be equitable - evenly distributed between uptown and downtown music? Will it be reasonable - spare the songs with suggestive lyrics? Is the culture of dirty songs already too entrenched and, therefore, inextricable? Most of all, I wonder if this campaign will fade away like all the others before it.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Feedback may be sent to garthrattray@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.