ABSTRACT
This first chapter introduces the book as an encounter between the ideas of the literary critic and language and cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) and the award-winning Pacific reggae extended play album (EP) “What’s Be Happen?” by the New Zealand band Herbs. It argues that the philosophy and theories of Bakhtin are particularly fitting for the analysis of the discourse of popular songs that construct social commentary, protest and resistance to injustice. It asserts the cultural importance of music and the role of recorded popular music in chronicling the past, and as a form of cultural memory. The chapter outlines aspects of the international and local context at the time of the album’s release in 1981. It identifies themes referenced in Herbs’ songs that continue to be relevant, including racism, the loss of indigenous people’s ancestral land, social marginalisation and the cultural dislocation suffered by migrant communities. The chapter introduces Bakhtin’s concepts and tools of analysis that are applied here in the interpretive analysis of meaning in Herbs’ album, through which five main themes are identified: oppression, power and the struggle for liberation, spirituality, identity and the dominant theme of resistance.
