Textual Analysis

Text: 'Boom Bye Bye' (1992), Buju Banton

Media Language: soft, melo soundtrack with connotations of love, gentile behavior, invites the listener to relax and enjoy the music. However everynow and again there is a gun shot sound, which creates a paradox, or a contrast between the violent theme of gun shots to the soft melody of the soundtrack. Jamaican slang, colloquial terminology suits the the form of the song, reggae song so you would expect to hear this dialect.. The artists strong, deep voice creates power and emphasizes a stronger meaning, especially as it is contrasted over the soft background music.
Words such as 'boom' signify calling for the shooting of homosexuals, which reinforces hes strong dislike for them.

Institution: Was through Fontana records, it was sold in the US and Caribbean however was soon taken off shelves due to protests fro gay rights groups etc. The song goes against all that's ethically right and socially responsible as it does not 'dumb down' or use euphemisms in the lyrical content. Fontana's involvement in distributing the record has been thought to off been the reason for their sudden lapse in international success with the promoting and distributing reggae music.

Genre: 'Boom bye bye' is a musical text, from the Reggae sub-genre, Dancehall. The Jamaican slang or 'patois' implies it's a reggae song, however it seems to defy the usual conventions of the majority of reggae songs, where the soundtrack is called a 'riddim', and when one riddim is made it is then used by many different reggae artists. 'Boom bye bye' does not do this as Buju Banton is the only artist to make a track on this 'riddim', from this we can infer that the 'riddim' has been specially made for this song, which suggests the importance of the theme or issue the song addresses.

Representation: Different groups represented in the text are mainly homosexuals and black people. The representation of homosexuals is a lot apparent and easier to hear throughout the song. Negative representations of homosexuals placing them in disagreement with the Bible and God, can either do two things to the audience, either allow them to identify with the artist and be overwhelmed by this piece of 'propaganda' or feel identify with the victims (homosexuals) and take a sand against this unprogressive, unfair attitude. The slightly more concealed or hidden representation in the song is of black people. This is only acquired by a form of stereotyping, if we feel that all black people, or afro caribbean's feel the same way the artist feels we are then given a portrayal of black people ideologies on the issue of homosexuality, which we can hear from the text is negative.

Audience: The audience for this text is 18+ as the issue addressed calls for a mature approach. The main audience for reggae music are black people of Caribbean dissent however this genre of music is increasingly popular in Europe and therefore would get international exposure. The text would most probably be aimed at males, as the artist is a male and he would expect the male audience to agree and side with him as the majority of males seem to share the same values on topics such as these, also a female audience would be a lot more likely to challenge the values of this song, as they seem to identify with homosexuals more.

Values and Ideologies: To an outsider it is clear that the main ideology being pushed through this text is homophobia, its prejudice and discrimination towards homosexuals conforms with homophobic values. A single unprogressive yet common cultural value of the black community have been portrayed through the song.

Narrative: In a way you could see a slight link to Propp's Hero/Villain theory. In the text the artist is portrayed as the hero, with his strong, powerful voice and his extermination of the villain(homosexuals) is heroic and can be seen as the role of the rescuer as he is saving society from these villains(homosexuals).