Essential Word Dictionary

CENSORSHIP: The practice, exercised by elite groups in authority, of monitoring and controlling media content by removing, suppressing or classifying elements deemed offensive or subversive for moral, political, economic, social or religious reasons.

Censorship links with my topic as it has been a vital tool in restricting the level of conflict between the gay community and reggae artists, as it has kept the explicit 'gay bashing' lyrical content of artists such as Capleton and Beenie Man glued to the underground, less commercial.

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY: The belief system that serves the interests of the dominant ruling elite within a society, generally accepted as common sense by the majority and reproduced in mainstream media texts, they reflect the ideologies of the hegemony.

This connects with my text as, the Caribbean countries that reggae come from all live with the strong ideology of condemning of homosexuals, which seems to be conveyed in their music.

JUDITH BUTLER: Professor of comparative literature and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Butler is associated with 'queer theory'- studies that question sexuality, gender identity and their representation in the media.

Judith Butler and queer theory is relevant to my study as my main focus is the representation of homosexuals and the question of sexuality and why is there so much hostility from reggae stars and the majority of black people towards homosexuals.

DECONSTRUCTION: The process of taking a text apart to explore and analyse its component elements, originally developed in the 1960's by French academic Jacques Derrida.

Deconstruction is important as, it is a device I will need to use to understand the message behind the lyrical content in the reggae songs.

GENRE: A category of media products classed as being similar in form and type.

In my study i have to look at the specific music genre of Reggae, i then have to look at a particular genre of Reggae, which is Dancehall.