Sounds of Vacation: Political Economies of Caribbean Tourism

by Jocelyne Guilbault (Editor), Timothy Rommen

The contributors to Sounds of Vacation examine the commodification of music and sound at popular vacation destinations throughout the Caribbean in order to tease out the relationships between political economy, hospitality, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Drawing on case studies from Barbados, the Bahamas, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Lucia, the contributors point to the myriad ways live performances, programmed music, and the sonic environment heighten tourists' pleasurable vacation experience. They explore, among other topics, issues of authenticity in Bahamian music; efforts to give tourists in Barbados peace and quiet at a former site of colonial violence; and how resort soundscapes extend beyond music to encompass the speech accents of local residents. Through interviews with resort managers, musicians, and hospitality workers, the contributors also outline the social, political, and economic pressures and interests that affect musical labor and the social encounters of musical production. In so doing, they prompt a rethinking of how to account for music and sound's resonances in postcolonial spaces.

Contributors. Jerome Camal, Steven Feld, Francio Guadeloupe, Jocelyne Guilbault, Jordi Halfman, Susan Harewood, Percy C. Hintzen, Timothy Rommen

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 30, 2019

Reviews

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sounds of Vacation: Political Economies of Caribbean Tourism examines the commodification of music and sound at all-inclusive hotels throughout the Caribbean to look at the relationships between political economy, hospitality, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism.

There are five essays and they look at The Bahamas, an unnamed French colony (yet the clues point to Guadaloupe), Sint Maarten, Barbados, and Saint Lucia. My personal favourite was "Touristic Rhythms" by Jerome Camal. He is able to create a narrative for the reader while educating them on the politics of music and sound. My least favourite was "All-Inclusive Resorts in Sint Maarten and Our Common Decolonial State" by Francio Guadeloupe and Jordi Halfman. The metaphor of butterflies did not pass over well and the narrative was hard to follow.

Each essay follows a different method of observation in studying sound. Each study is interesting and illuminates the way people in the Caribbean have similar experiences and yet are so different. The essays examine and observe changes in music, how tourism affects music, how sound (or the lack of it) impacts the hotel experience, how hotels have similar plantation themes, locals versus seasonal staff, the erasure of black locals in hotels, and much more.

"...Vistors' sensory engagement with the Caribbean is not limited to sight and taste. It is complete. It involves all of our senses: sight, smell, taste, but also touch, kinesthesia, and of course, sound."

Each essay offers something for the reader to think about whether it relates to music or everyday sound in the Caribbean. The effects of colonialism shine through in every essay.

"The lesson of this volume is not confined merely to the postcolonial context of Caribbean nation-states. It is revelatory of transnational processes that affect everyone, everywhere."

[Jen Well-Steered · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an interesting review of this in Foreign Affairs and it was available from my university library. I've never been to an all-inclusive resort, or the Caribbean, even though the country I live in still has overseas territories there. Still, I found the topic of analysing the music and musicians in destination resorts intriguing, because you never think about it. And really, there were not many surprises: people don't go there hoping to hear the local top 40, at best they want to hear 'Caribbean' music they're already familiar with, plus things they'd normally listen to. A typical Boomer playlist with a bit more Bob Marley than usual. And they don't really want piped-in Muzak, they want a band in Hawaiian shirts playing steel drums.