Interesting. Is this is the first time a nation is attempting to effectively stake a claim for a musical genre? I'm not sure there are many people out there who would not know where reggae...
Interesting. Is this is the first time a nation is attempting to effectively stake a claim for a musical genre? I'm not sure there are many people out there who would not know where reggae originated, despite it being a global phenomena... My point being I think reggae is already widely recognised as something that had its roots in Jamaica. I find it therefore a little unnecessary and kind of against the spirit of music to lay an explicit claim of ownership. Then again I might be missing some historical nuances here that completely invalidate my perspective. On the flip side, I think it would be cool if Norway formally recognised Black Metal as a cultural treasure and valuable Norwegian export.
It's not about "staking a claim" or acquiring "ownership" over Reggae. Intangible Cultural Heritage status isn't like Protected Designation of Origin status for regional products (e.g. Champagne,...
It's not about "staking a claim" or acquiring "ownership" over Reggae. Intangible Cultural Heritage status isn't like Protected Designation of Origin status for regional products (e.g. Champagne, Iberico Ham, Kalamata olives, etc) so if granted offers Jamaica no legal rights or advantage over other countries regarding it AFAIK. Jamaica is also not even close to the first nation to seek ICH status on a musical tradition. See: The ICH List and filter by "music"
Interesting. Is this is the first time a nation is attempting to effectively stake a claim for a musical genre? I'm not sure there are many people out there who would not know where reggae originated, despite it being a global phenomena... My point being I think reggae is already widely recognised as something that had its roots in Jamaica. I find it therefore a little unnecessary and kind of against the spirit of music to lay an explicit claim of ownership. Then again I might be missing some historical nuances here that completely invalidate my perspective. On the flip side, I think it would be cool if Norway formally recognised Black Metal as a cultural treasure and valuable Norwegian export.
It's not about "staking a claim" or acquiring "ownership" over Reggae. Intangible Cultural Heritage status isn't like Protected Designation of Origin status for regional products (e.g. Champagne, Iberico Ham, Kalamata olives, etc) so if granted offers Jamaica no legal rights or advantage over other countries regarding it AFAIK. Jamaica is also not even close to the first nation to seek ICH status on a musical tradition. See: The ICH List and filter by "music"
ICH status is largely symbolic and most often simply used as a promotional tool for nations, which is likely why Jamaica is seeking to be included. However it's not entirely symbolic as it also opens the door to requesting emergency financial assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund to safeguard the practices should they become at risk due to any "event that has severe consequences for the intangible cultural heritage". The past/present List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding can be found on Wikipedia.