IT has not been a good year for Jamaican pop music. Sales tracker, SoundScan, reports that music buyers in the United States showed little interest in what Jamaican artistes had to offer in 2009.
SoundScan has released sales figures to the end of October. It said, collectively, reggae/dancehall music sold just 502,171 units for the first 10 months of the year.
On the Billboard reggae charts, Bob Marley’s best selling set, B is for Bob which moved 35,760 copies after 20 weeks. Titles such as Reggae Gold 2008 continued its good showing, selling 40,096 after 73 weeks, while its followup, Reggae Gold 2009 sold 18,949 after 20 weeks. The reggae band, Rebelution sold 20,311 of Bright Side of Life after 14 weeks, while Ziggy Marley keeps...