Lovers rock

Other lovers rock singers were Junior Murvin,[5] Beres Hammond, Horace Andy, Kofi, Sanchez, Samantha Rose, and Marcia Aitken.

[2] In the 1990s, artists such as Mike Anthony, Peter Hunnigale and Donna Marie enjoyed success with the genre, and several British stars performed at Reggae Sunsplash.

Lisa Palmer's "Men Cry Too: Black Masculinities and the Feminisation of Lovers Rock in the UK" discusses the lyrical contents found within this genre, which are notable due to how they shaped its gendering and politicization.

For instance, the song "Men Cry Too/Man a Reason" was important because it "captured the sense of loss, longing, and vulnerability that was part of black male life in Britain, but was and remains frequently overshadowed by the notion that black masculinity within the British roots reggae music scene is constructed upon the paradigm of political resistance and protest detached from emotional or erotic expression" (Palmer 128).

[10] Because the majority of its audience were women, and it tended to have a romantic influence in sound and lyrics, lovers rock was often seen as intrinsically apolitical, whereas roots reggae and the black masculinity associated with it had clear political messages of emancipation and liberation.

[11] Lovers rock, being indigenous to Britain with strong Jamaican influences, emerged with regard to the cultural and political environments of the time for Caribbean people in the United Kingdom.

It portrayed patriarchal discourses through its creation of politically contentious erotic spaces that challenged racism, while also encapsulating the struggles of gendered oppression dealt with by women.

As opposed to the singularity espoused by reggae music, lovers rock, encouraged people to engage with one another in hopes of finding a love interest.

[citation needed] There's a "faulty logic follow(ing) dominant perceptions within wider patriarchal cultures that love is not political and is ultimately female work" (Palmer 117).

[15] According to sociologist Lisa Amanda Palmer, the patriarchal structures within lovers rock dictated female success as men were often the DJs and producers in that space.

[16] She cites the experience of Carroll Thompson, who created her own company (in which she maintained complete creative control of her projects) because she was tired of the sexist and prejudice attitudes within the industry.

Ultimately, Palmer asserts that lovers rock and roots reggae are not oppositional, but instead demonstrate the many forms of Black expression in a period of extreme racialization and prejudice.