Jamaican dancehall duo RDX have some hugely popular dance hits. One of their latest is “Shake Your Bam Bam,” a number-one dancehall hit of the summer, which is another of the many songs in the history of popular music celebrating the movement of women’s rear ends. The song has a steady beat, elastic guitar lines and bright keyboard sounds that basically create one big bouncing feel, which basically drives home the point.
Songs about butt gyrations are nothing new. (Other of RDX’s hits were “Bend Over” and “Daggering,” the latter of which refers to an aggressive style of sexualized dance.) But Jamaican dancehall has taken the practice to new levels. The isolations, contortions and intense rhythmic rippling moves that the dancers can pull off are impressive — it’s a genre where the aesthetics of the strip club, WWF wrestling and Cirque du Soleil come together.
RDX are colorful (with multicolored mohawks) and energetic (with athletic dancers as part of their live show), from the Waterhouse section of Kingston. They’re taking dancehall, which is often tailored very specifically for Jamaican audiences, to international listeners, just in time to meet a steady-growing fondness for the genre’s rhythms in American pop radio.
RDX will be at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, on Sunday, Oct.8, at 10 p.m. $40. toadsplace.com, 203-624-8623.
