and the level of international recognition his work gave to the community. Nevertheless, this can also be interpreted as either a subconscious or conscious effort by at least some members of the community to capitalize on Marley’s international appeal while paying scant regard to the host of other talented individuals that have originated from Trench Town.
There also seems to be an overemphasis on Rastafari as representative of Trench Town’s contribution to Jamaican music and culture. While reggae music and Rastafari are undoubtedly linked, it would be flawed to confine Trench Town’s significance to reggae music solely to the Rastafari movement. Indeed, Trench Town has produced many famous reggae artistes who did not necessarily ascribe to the Rastafari movement, including the likes of Ken Booth, Joe Higgs, Alton Ellis, and Leroy Sibbles.
Another important theme emerging from this case study relates to the influence of popular cultural media such as films and music in the making of place. The interrelationship between media, cultural heritage, and tourism has been receiving increasing attention in tourism studies (see e.g., [1] [2] [3] [4]). From classical music sites in Salzburg (Austria) and Vienna (Italy) to Beatles sites in Liverpool [5] more
and more scholars have been exploring the specific role media and tourism (music tourism in particular) plays in the social construction of place. Alderman [6], for instance, examined how important Graceland—the final residence and resting place of American music icon Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee—has become to modern popular American culture. Graceland is now a major cultural heritage site to both fans and non-fans of Elvis throughout the
United States and from all parts of the world. Approximately 700,000 visitors reportedly tour Elvis’ Graceland mansion each year, making it probably the most famous house in America, next to the White House [7]. Like Graceland, Trench Town’s landscape has also been impacted by a variety of cultural media products and popular imaginations evident in its many narrations and place inscriptions. As Gibson and Connell [[8] page 14] point out, there is no doubt that “Music remains a powerful presence in global mediascapes, in both the images and associations with place captured in lyrics, in connections between artists, bands or whole “scenes” and certain places.”
4. Concluding Thoughts
The paper examines several landscape inscriptions in Trench Town and explores the various ways these are used to reinforce, shape, or challenge dominant images of the community. Trench Town, like so many of its neighbouring inner-city communities, has long been characterised by high levels of poverty, unemployment, political and gang violence, derelict buildings, and overcrowded homes [9] [10]. Yet still, Trench Town is revered around the world for being the birthplace of reggae music and home to a number of
internationally renowned reggae artistes such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and the Wailers.
The study found that Trench Town’s landscape is filled with numerous landscape inscriptions, ranging from murals, statues, graffiti, and museum to dilapidated buildings and zinc fences. Most of these inscriptions are seen as resulting from the conscious efforts by some of Trench Town’s residents to evoke images of the community’s rich heritage and its overwhelming association with reggae music and reggae icons like Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. While this past distinguishes Trench Town and its residents from other communities in Downtown Kingston, these inscriptions are also interpreted as playing into place and identity politics. Though Bob Marley is arguably the most popular figure to have originated from Trench Town to date, by singling out Marley, the community runs the risk of playing into popular conceptions of the place. Throughout most of the literature and electronic media, Trench Town’s significance has been confined to its association with the life and legacy of Robert Nesta Marley. No doubt Marley’s ascendancy to international fame helped place Trench Town on the world map; however, Marley is just one of many other reggae artistes that grew up in the area.
The Trench Town Culture Yard Museum can also be interpreted as representing another form of landscape inscription. The museum also conjures up selective images of Bob Marley and the wider Trench Town community, though in a slightly and uniquely different way from that of the murals seen throughout the community. Similar to the murals, the Culture Yard also represents a form of landscape inscription—one that claims to be representative of Trench Town and the community’s contribution to Jamaican music and culture in particular. Yet still, the Culture Yard, like in the case of the murals, seemingly plays into popular conceptions
and stereotypes of the place. The tremendous emphasis placed on Bob Marley and his life accomplishments, for instance, effectively downplay the role and contribution of so many other Reggae icons including Ken Booth, Alton Ellis, Leroy Sibbles, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer to name some.
To sum up, we contend that landscape inscriptions, like any other spatial strategy and form, if read as texts, may allow for the eliciting, if even partially, of the importance of place to people’s sense of identity. The paper has therefore sought to contribute to the growing body of literature on place making and contestation, by looking at the various inscriptions (such as murals and graffiti) seen throughout Trench Town’s landscape and examining their role in conjuring up positive images of the community’s rich heritage as the birthplace of reggae music as opposed to being a rundown violent-riddled inner-city community. While we made some interesting findings, much more work remains to be done on these and other landscape inscriptions as well as
the particular but similar experiences of the communities located in West Kingston and their inhabitants. Also of importance is the particular ways new cultural industries, like music-based tourism, have transformed local places both materially and discursively.
References
- ↑ S. Beeton, “Rural tourism in Australia—has the gaze altered? Tracking rural images through film and tourism promotion,” International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 125–135, 2004.
- ↑ W. Frost, “Braveheart-ed Ned Kelly: historic films, heritage tourism and destination image,” Tourism Management, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 247–254, 2006.
- ↑ F. Di Cesare, L. D’Angelo, and G. Rech, “Films and Tourism: understanding the nature and intensity of their cause-effect relationship,” Tourism Review International, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 103–111, 2009.
- ↑ N. Macionis and B. Sparks, “Film-induced tourism: an incidental experience,” Tourism Review International, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 93–101, 2009.
- ↑ C. Gibson and J. Connell, Music and Tourism: On the Road Again, Multilingual Matters, Ontario, Canada, 2005.
- ↑ D. Alderman, “Writing on the Graceland wall: on the importance of authorship in pilgrimage landscapes,” Tourism Recreation Research, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 27–34, 2002.
- ↑ F. Coffey, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Elvis, Alpha Books, New York, NY, USA, 1997.
- ↑ C. Gibson and J. Connell, Music and Tourism: On the Road Again, Multilingual Matters, Ontario, Canada, 2005.
- ↑ C. G. Clarke, “Population pressure in Kingston, Jamaica: a study of unemployment and overcrowding,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 165–182, 1966.
- ↑ C. G. Clarke, Decolonizing the Colonial City: Urbanization and Stratification in Kingston, Jamaica, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2006.
