Dancehall. Not a word made in Jamaica - but neither is Usain Bolt's trademark archer's pose, and look who, for all practical purposes, owns that now?

But owning something and actually showing ownership are two different things. Which is where Guinness 50 Greatest Dancehall Icons comes in, giving us all an equal voice in saying who best represents what dancehall means to us at this crucial 50th-anniversary point in Jamaica's history as an independent country. To remind you of what the icons have achieved, we are presenting short stories on each person in alphabetical order.

So dancehall is Jamaican. It is a formal, named event - like Sting at Jam World every Boxing Day or Weddy Weddy at Stone Love's headquarters on Wednesday nights. It is a casual occurrence - car doors opened to let out the bass line while a couple friends swallow some happiness and leak out sorrows, or the glorious extra twitch of a hot gal's rump as she passes a stall bearing fraud brands and a tiny speaker.

popular music forms

Dancehall is music that borrows from all the Jamaican popular music forms that preceded it - mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub - subtracting instruments at will and adding its own synthesised beats in the early 1980s to create a 'riddim' that singers flow with and deejays ride 'like a tyre pon a rim' and 'like a lizard pon a limb' into submissions.

It is a word loaded with images - towers of black speakers climbing into the sky, clothing styles that dare and bare, a shock of multicoloured hair on a 'dutty wining' head, flashing blue lights as the cops arrive to lock off the dance. It is loaded with emotions - the sheer exhilaration of life, anger against 'the system' (and, for those who don't want to hear the music, rage against night noise), fleeting sorrow as a few drops of liquor are poured for the soldiers gone ahead.

Dancehall is a word loaded with words, slang like 'tun up' and 'buil' when they are new, the lyrics of the innumerable singers, deejays, singjays and chanters who have taken a turn at the microphone at a session or stage show, or in the studio.

Those performers are some of those who have made dancehall great, and some of them have gone on to greatness themselves. But the men and women who 'hol de mic' are only some of dancehall's great personalities and shapers. There are the dancers, the fashion designers, the 'modellers', the producers, the videographers, the 'cassette man' and others, all of who have combined to send dancehall, as a space and as a music form, from Jamaica 'to di worl'.

Still, there is great and there is iconic. The differences? Many. But, in the end, a great makes an impression, but an icon makes a difference.

Guinness 50 Greatest Dancehall Icons present you with those who have made the greatest difference in dancehall. Now you have the chance to make a difference, by voting for Jamaica's greatest dancehall icon. Come een, my selectors!

Dancehall fans, you get the chance to decide who makes the list of the Guinness 50 Greatest

Dancehall Icons of all time.

Check the STAR daily for the 60 nominated icons and text your choice of any one

to 444-2451 or log on to the Guinness Caribbean page on Facebook and vote for your chance to win $50,000 in cash.

After the Guinness 50 Greatest Dancehall Icons have been chosen, we want you to tell us who should be the number-one icon. Keep voting for your favourite icon and you can win exciting prizes such as phone credit, cash and tickets to Reggae Sumfest Dancehall Night! The Guinness Dancehall Icon will be announced on August 3. Also look out for THE STAR's free massive Dancehall Icon Concert on July 28 which will feature selected performers from the list.