Soca music

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Soca, or soul calypso, is a form of dance music that originated in Trinidad from Calypso. It originally combined the melodic lilting sound of Calypso with insistent (usually electronic in recent music) percussion and Local (Chutney) music. Soca music has evolved in the last 20 years primarily by musicians from Trinidad, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and some bands from St Kitts and Jamaica and the Lesser Antilles.

The nickname of the Trinidad and Tobago national football team, the Soca Warriors, refers to this musical genre.

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[edit] History

The reputed father of soca was Lord Shorty (born Garfield Blackman), whose 1963 recording of "Cloak and Dagger" started the trend. It would be Lord Kitchener who would begin the noticeable and accredited transition. According to Lord Kitchener's Former Manager Errol Peru a pioneer in the promotion of Calypso & Soca Music, "Kitch had a knack for Kaiso... anything he composed was instantly a hit." Byron Lee & the Dragonaires made soca a West Indian social wave, but the Baha Men, Kevin Lyttle, Machel Montano, Burning Flames, Krosfyah, Rupee Walker and others in the 21st century brought it to American recognition.

Like calypso, soca was used for both social commentary and risqué humor, though the initial wave of soca acts eschewed the former. Lord Shorty was disillusioned with the genre by the 1980s because soca was being used to express courtships and sexual interests. Like all things related to sexual freedom, it became embraced because of its ability to reflect what people were thinking and their desires in a society that was sexually repressed. Soca music became an expression of sexuality through metaphors in the West Indies. Soon after, Shorty moved to the Piparo forest, converted to the Rastafari movement and changed his name to Ras Shorty I. There, he created a fusion of Reggae and gospel music called jamoo in the late 1980s.In the 1990s and now the new century Soca has evolved into a blend of musical styles. Machel Montano's collaborations with Jamacian musicians (Red Rat and Beenie Man), American musician (Walker Hornung) and Japanese artists have pushed the boundaries of modern Soca. Machel Montano would be the first mainstream Soca artist to sell out venues all over the world including the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

[edit] Notable Artists

Some of the greatest soca artists of all time are Shadow, Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow, Rikki Jai, The Baron, Krosfyah, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and more recently artists such as Alison Hinds, Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, KMC, Shurwayne Winchester, Bunji Garlin, Mr. Slaughter, Maximus Dan, Jamesy P, Kevin Lyttle, El A Kru, Burning Flames, Krosfyah, Square One.

[edit] Hit Songs

Some soca songs that have become worldwide hits:

Turn It Around- Umi Marcano

[edit] Related Genres

Soca music has evolved like all other music over the years, with Calypsonians experimenting with other rhythms, some examples are the following:

  1. Rapso : Eastern Caribbean dialect hip-hop with smooth calypso melody and bold lyric
  2. Chutney-Soca: Original Soca performed with a more Chutney styled form; mainly performed by Chutney musicians
  3. Ragga Soca: A fusion of Jamaican Dancehall and Soca, which is an uptempo Calypso beat with moderate bass and electronic instruments. A Trinidadian way or form of performing Dancehall Reggae.
  4. Parang Soca: A combination of Calypso, Soca, and Latino music. Parang originated in Venezuela and is most often sung in Spanish.
  5. Steelband-Soca: Steel Pans are types of drum often used in Soca and Calypson music; it becamse so popular that it became it's own musical genre--Steelband. The steel pans are hand-made, bowl-like, metal drums that are crafted so that diffrent sections of the drum produce different notes when struck. Steelbands are groups of musicians who play songs entirely on steel drums. There are many different types of steel pans, each with its own unique set of pitches.

Soca has also been experimented with in Bollywood films, Bhangra, and new Punjabi pop.

[edit] Instrumentation

Soca music is based on a strong rhythmic section done by a drum set. The drum and percussion is often loud in this genre of music and is sometimes the only instrument to back up the vocal. Soca is indeed defined by its loud fast percussion beats. Synthesizers are used often in modern soca due to the fact that most songs carry a variety of instruments not used often in the Caribbean. Electric and bass guitars are found very often and are always found in a live soca band. Brass instruments are found occasionally in live soca bands mostly for the 'bigger' fetes. The trumpet is used as the main instrument in the brass line (most soca brass sections contain at least 2 trumpets). The trombone is also found in a brass section and always acts as a counterpart of the trumpet which purpose is to add texture to the brass line. Saxophones are occasionally found in a brass section and also play the brass line.

The word "Soca" is a combination of the words "soul" and "calypso" showing the word's blend of traditional soul music and carribean Calypso muusic.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Caribbean Music Caribbean Music Videos.da:Soca de:Soca (Musikrichtung) es:Soca fr:Soca pl:Soca pt:Soca sv:Soca

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Soca_music"
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