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implication, to the descriptive metalanguage used in such reviews). The contexts of these quotations convey this uncertainty of meaning; both Williams and Wyn suggest a possible relation between the Welsh pop songs and a reggae style rather than positing a direct correlation between the two areas. But with the continued application of the word to certain Welsh pop songs since then, reggae has assumed an almost absolute, unquestioned meaning in musical descriptions. The Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (Companion to Welsh Literature), for example, describes Jarman as 'one of the most familiar per- formers in the world of entertainment in Wales today [1986] and the foremost representative of reggae music in Welsh'.4 The comparison between Jarman's songs and reggae music is emphasized further in the following comments written (in English) on the sleeve of Jarman's greatest hits collection: 'he brought new influences, especially from the world of reggae and Rastafarianism, into Welsh popular music'.5 From these references it is evident that the word has slipped almost unnoticed or at least unqualified into the critical discourse, without any further thought to its significance and meaning. As a result, the word has assumed an almost unquestioned position within this discourse. Reggae has thus acquired its own sense of 'legitimation' in Welsh culture. Roland Barthes has associated this tendency towards the legitimacy of words with the particular role of 'myth': Myth does not deny things, on the contrary, its function is to talk about them; simply it purifies them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of an explanation but of a statement of fact.6 Is it really necessary, however, to give a detailed critique of the term reggae? Surely it would be relatively easy to demonstrate that the word has remained essentially fixed, regardless of any isolated context? But such an approach, which would effectively consign the location and meaning of stylistic terms to the general and paradig- matic categories of popular culture, would be guilty of disregarding Peter Wicke's observation that 'Rock songs are cultural texts'.7 That is, pop songs are ultimately sui generis; they emerge out of their own individual and specific cultural contexts. What is at stake, of course, are those levels of intentional or implied meaning associated with the term in its appropriated context the signifiance of reggae in its new-found musical, political, social and historical location. Only an innocent and disinterested reading of the word would erase the traces of its own cultural and contextual specificity. Sufficient emphasis has already been placed on the nature of the logos in speech acts. This emphasis on the signification of words will