To me, looking at the matter from an outside perspective (living in Sweden), it seems clear that although the word "ragga" (derived from "raggamuffin") exists in the Jamaican vocabulary, it is only in UK that it refers to a specific musical style.
That musical style is exactly the same as what in Jamaica is called "dancehall". Absolutely no difference, "ragga" is just a British word for it. I have no idea why British people just couldn't call it dancehall, it just seems they had to come up with their own little word for it, very strange.
It's equally strange that they then had to come up with a new word for the same thing, when it started to be called "bashment" in UK in the mid '90s. Some people in this thread has described "ragga" and "bashment" as being different styles of Jamaican music, produced in different eras, with different sounds. You could put it like that, but I think it would be more correct to simply say that "ragga" is what British people called dancehall before, and "bashment" is what they call dancehall now.
Someone also said that "dancehall" in Jamaica refers to a more specific style of jamaican music, the sound of late '70s/early '80's. I'd say that's when the term was born, after earlier terms like "ska", "rocksteady", "reggae" and so on, but that doesn't mean that the term refers specifically to that sound only. Jamaicans still call what is being made today dancehall (what British people would call "bashment"), so in language Jamiacans make no difference between say, Eek-A-Mouse and Elephant Man. It's all dancehall. If Jamaican music once was in the "ska era" and then moved on to the "reggae era", I guess one could say that we are still in the "dancehall era" that began in the late '70s/early '80's. At least in terms of how music is being categorized in Jamaica.
That musical style is exactly the same as what in Jamaica is called "dancehall". Absolutely no difference, "ragga" is just a British word for it. I have no idea why British people just couldn't call it dancehall, it just seems they had to come up with their own little word for it, very strange.
It's equally strange that they then had to come up with a new word for the same thing, when it started to be called "bashment" in UK in the mid '90s. Some people in this thread has described "ragga" and "bashment" as being different styles of Jamaican music, produced in different eras, with different sounds. You could put it like that, but I think it would be more correct to simply say that "ragga" is what British people called dancehall before, and "bashment" is what they call dancehall now.
Someone also said that "dancehall" in Jamaica refers to a more specific style of jamaican music, the sound of late '70s/early '80's. I'd say that's when the term was born, after earlier terms like "ska", "rocksteady", "reggae" and so on, but that doesn't mean that the term refers specifically to that sound only. Jamaicans still call what is being made today dancehall (what British people would call "bashment"), so in language Jamiacans make no difference between say, Eek-A-Mouse and Elephant Man. It's all dancehall. If Jamaican music once was in the "ska era" and then moved on to the "reggae era", I guess one could say that we are still in the "dancehall era" that began in the late '70s/early '80's. At least in terms of how music is being categorized in Jamaica.