ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that reggae music ultimately served an important 'in-group' function for the Rastafarian movement, including intensifying group solidarity and transforming member's selfhood and identity. It examines the relationship between social movements and protest music. The chapter discusses the implications of this research on the study of protest music. It also argues that the Rastafarian movement is, in fact, self-directed because many of its members are from Jamaica's underclass and the movement has focused much of its attention on redefining racial and ethnic identities in Jamaica. The chapter also discusses how reggae songs portray the image of dispossessed slaves, redefine 'blackness' in more positive terms and attack 'Babylon' as the source of personal misery and social ills. 'By painting the enemy in dark hued imagery of vice, corruption, evil, and weakness', Richard Gregg argues, 'one may more easily convince himself of his own superior virtue and thereby gain a symbolic victory of ego-enhancement'.
