From Prophecy to Pastime: Reggae as Escapism

Once a ceremonial weapon of Word, Sound, and Power, reggae is too often reduced to mood music. The prophet becomes performer; prophecy becomes therapy. Frantz Fanon foresaw this: revolutionary culture repackaged as folklore for tourism and global markets. In “The Wretched of the Earth” he warned that national culture cannot be preserved as mere folklore, the traditions, costumes and clichés of an imagined past, but must emerge dynamically from present struggles for liberation, lest it be emptied of revolutionary substance. The rhythm is alive, but the message barely remains, a faint remnant of its true power.

Reggae soothes instead of disturbs. It plays in cafés, yoga studios, and resorts as background leisure. The sacrament of ganja becomes a lifestyle brand; the Rasta image is sold as relaxation instead of resistance.
This blunts the revolutionary edge. Reggae, once weapon of the poor, is wielded as pacifier.

Ceremony becomes stage show, testimony becomes branding, judgment becomes “good vibes.”

Yet beneath the gloss, the roots remain. Reggae can still be reclaimed as weapon of awakening, a sound to unsettle Babylon rather than soothe it.

From:
The Colonization of Rastafari and Reggae: From Rebel Music to Commodification by Fikir Amlak