List of Caribbean music genres
Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of
The history of Caribbean music originates from the history of the Caribbean itself. That history is one of the native land invaded by outsiders; violence, slavery, and even genocide factor in.
Following Christopher Columbus' 1492 landing, Spain claimed the entire region as its own, an act which didn't sit well with either the natives or Spain's European neighbors; within a few years, bloody battles raged across the islands of the Caribbean, fought by Spain, France, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands. All these battles (and diseases brought from Europe) decimated the native tribes, with entire cultures wiped out.
Thus the Caribbean was colonized as part of the various European empires. Native cultures were further eroded when the Europeans imported African slaves to work the sugar and coffee plantations on their island colonies. In many cases, native cultures (and native musics) were replaced by those imported from Africa and Europe.
At this point,[when?] whatever common Caribbean culture existed was splintered. Each of the European powers had imposed its own culture on the islands they had claimed. In the late 20th century, many Caribbean islands gained independence from colonial rule but the European influences can still be heard in the music of each subtly different culture.
Island-specific culture also informs the music of the Caribbean. Every island has its distinct musical styles, all inspired, to one degree or another, by the music brought over from the African slaves. As such, most Caribbean music, however unique to its own island culture, includes elements of African music - heavy use of percussion, complex rhythmic patterns, and call-and-response vocals. In many cases, the difference between one style and another comes down to the rhythms utilized in each music; every island has its own rhythmic sensibilities.
The complex deep origins of Caribbean music are best understood with a knowledge of
) are one of the strongest influences.Divisions between Caribbean music genres are not always well-defined, because many of these genres share common relations, instrumentation and have influenced each other in many ways and directions.[2] For example, the Jamaican mento style has a long history of conflation with Trinidadian calypso.[3] Elements of calypso have come to be used in mento, and vice versa, while their origins lie in the Caribbean culture, each uniquely characterized by influences from the Shango and Shouters religions of Trinidad and the Kumina spiritual tradition of Jamaica.[4] Music from the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean are classified as tropical music in the Latin music industry.
Antigua and Barbuda
By the mid-20th century Antigua and Barbuda boasted lively calypso and steelpan scenes as part of its annual Carnival celebration. Hell's Gate, along with Brute Force and the Big Shell Steelband, were the first Caribbean steelbands to be recorded and featured on commercial records thanks to the efforts of the American record producer Emory Cook.[5] Short Shirt, Swallow, and Obstinate were among the most popular calypsonians who competed in the island's annual calypso competition.[6]
Benna
Benna is an uptempo Antiguan folk song, also spelled bennah and known as ditti. It is characterized by lyrics that focus on scandalous gossip, performed in a call and response style. It has also been a means of folk communication, spreading news and political commentary across the island.[7] Other genres include:
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Colombia
- Berroche
- Bullerengue
- Champeta
- Chandé
- Chalupa
- Cumbia
- Cumbión
- Fandango
- Garabato
- Grito e' monte
- Guacherna
- Guaracha
- Jalao
- Lumbalú
- Mapalé
- Merecumbé
- Millo
- Parrandín
- Paseaito
- Perillero
- Porro
- Reggaeton
- Salsa
- Son Faroto
- Son de Negro
- Son Sabanero
- Son Palenquero
- Tambora (Golpe de tambora)
- Terapia
- Zafra
- Vallenato y sus aires:
- Abambucao
- Romanza vallenata
- Piqueria
- Calipso
- Foxtrot
- Mazurka
- Mento
- ModeUp
- Dancehall
- Pasillo Isleño
- Polka
- Praise Hymn
- Quadrille
- Reggae
- Schottis
- Socca
- Ska
- Vals isleño
- Zouk
Cuba
- Abwe
- Afro-Cuban jazz
- Areito
- Bakosó
- Batá and yuka
- Batá-rumba
- Bembe
- Boogaloo
- Bolero
- Chachachá
- Changui
- Charanga
- Conga
- Columbia
- Comparsa
- Criolla
- Cuban hip hop
- Cuban jazz
- Cubatón
- Danzón
- Danzonete
- Dengue
- Descarga
- Filín
- Folk
- Guaguanco
- Guajira
- Guaracha
- Guarapachangueo
- Habanera
- Latin Jazz
- Mambo
- Mozambique
- Nueva trova
- Paca
- Pachanga
- Pilón
- Pregón
- Punto guajiro
- Reggae en Español
- Rock
- Rumba
- Salsa
- Son
- Son-batá
- Songo
- Son Montuno
- Timba
- Trova
- Tumba francesa
- UPA
- Yambú
Dominica
Chanté mas
Chanté mas (masquerade song) is a tradition from the music of Dominica, based in Carnival celebrations and performed by groups of masquerading partygoers. They use the call-and-response format, and lyrics are often light-hearted insulting, and discuss local scandals and rumors.[8] Other genres include:
soca music
Dominican Republic
Dutch West Indies
Bari is a festival, dance, drum and song type from the Dutch Antillean island of Bonaire. It is led by a single singer, who improvises. Lyrics often concern local figures and events of importance.[9]
Tumba is a style of Curaçao music, strongly African in origin, despite the name's origin in a 17th-century Spanish dance. Traditional tumba is characterized by scandalous, gossiping and accusatory lyrics, but modern tumba often eschews such topics. It is well known abroad, and dates to the early 19th century. It is now a part of the Carnival Road March.[11]
Other genres include:
Guadeloupe
Guyana
Shanto is a form of Guyanese music, related to both calypso and mento,[12] and became a major part of early popular music through its use in Guyanese vaudeville shows; songs are topical and light-hearted, often accompanied by a guitar.[13] Other genres include:
Haiti
Compas / kompa
Compas, short for compas direct, is the modern
In Creole, it is spelled as konpa dirèk or simply konpa. It is commonly spelled as it is pronounced as kompa.[14]
Méringue
Evolving in Haiti during the mid-1800s, the Haitian méringue (known as the mereng in
Mizik rasin
Starting in the late 1970s (with discontent surrounding the increasing opulence of the Duvalier dictatorship), youth from Port-au-Prince (and to a lesser extent Cap-Haïtien and other urban areas) began experimenting with new types of life. François Duvalier's appropriation of Vodou images as a terror technique, the increase in U.S. assembly and large-scale export agriculture, the popularity of disco, and Jean-Claude Duvalier's appreciation of konpa and chanson française disillusioned many youth and love.
To question the dictatorship's notion of "the Haitian nation" (and thus the dictatorship itself), several men began trying a new way of living, embodied in the Sanba Movement. They drew upon global trends in black power, Bob Marley, "Hippie"-dom, as well as prominently from rural life in Haiti. They dressed in the traditional blue denim (karoko) of peasants, eschewed the commercialized and processed life offered by global capitalism, and celebrated the values of communal living. Later, they adopted matted hair which resembled dreadlocks, but identified the style as something which existed in Haiti with the term cheve simbi, referring to water spirits.
In the 1990s, commercial success came to the musical genre that came to be known as
Twoubadou
Other
- Cadence rampa (kadans)
- Coumbite (kombite)
- Haitian Gospel
- Haitian hip hop (rap kreyòl)
- Haitian rock (rock kreyòl)
- Kontradans
- Mini-jazz
- Rabòday
- Rara music
- Rara tech
- Vodou drumming
- Zouk
Honduras
The music of Honduras is varied. Punta is the main "ritmo" of Honduras, with similar sounds such as Caribbean salsa, merengue, reggae, reggaeton, And kompa all widely heard especially in the North, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior rural part of the country. Honduras' capital Tegucigalpa is an important center for modern Honduran music, and is home to the College for Fine Arts.
Folk music is played with guitar, marimba and other instruments. Popular folk songs include La ceiba and Candú.
Other genres include:
- Reggaeton
- Rock
- Garifuna music
- Bachata
- Matamuerte
- Classical music
- Merengue
- Hip Hop
- Pop Latino
- Cumbia
- Salsa
- Spanish rock
Jamaica
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.[17]
Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat.[17]
Mento is a form of Jamaican folk music that uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Sexual innuendos are also common.[18][19] Mento was strongly influenced by calypso, the musical traditions of the Kumina religion and Cuban music.[4] During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as calypso, kalypso and mento calypso; mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques.[3]
Jamaican genres include:
- Bruckins
- Calypso
- Dembow
- Kumina
- Maroon
- Mento
- Nagos
- Revival
- Set-Up
- Gerreh
- Tambo
- Workings
- Reggae
- African reggae
- Reggaeton
- Reggae Fusion
- Roots reggae
- Reggaestep
- Ragga
- Raggamuffin
- Toasting
- Ska jazz
- Rap
- Hip Hop
- Dub poetry
- Rocksteady
- Lovers rock
- Ska punk
- Dancehall
- Dancehall pop
- Dancehall reggae
- Quadrille
- Nyabinghi
- Deejay
- Ragga jungle
- Jungle
- Gospel reggae
- Singjay
- Ska rock
- Reggaestep
- Rub-a-Dub
- Grime (music genre)
- Two-tone
- One drop
- Skank
- Nyabinghi
- Reggae en Español
- Reggae rock
- Reggae pop
- Ska jazz
- Reggaemento
- Mento fusion
- Christian ska
- Crack rock steady
Martinique
Puerto Rico
- Aguinaldo
- Bachata
- Balada
- Bolero
- Boogaloo
- Bomba
- Cha-Cha-Chá
- Classical
- Dancehall
- Danza
- Décima
- Dembow
- Guaracha
- Jíbaro
- Latin Freestyle
- Latin Hip-Hop
- Latin House
- Latin Jazz
- Latin Pop
- Latin Rock
- Latin Trap
- Mambo
- Merengue
- Merenhouse
- Plena
- Reggae
- Reggae en Español
- Reggaeton
- Salsa
- Salsa Romántica
- Spanish Dancehall
- Seis
- Son
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Jwé is a kind of rural music from Saint Lucia, performed informally at wakes, beach parties, full moon gatherings and other events, including débòt dances. Jwé uses raunchy lyrics and innuendos to show off verbal skills, and to express political and comedic commentaries on current events and well-known individuals. One well-known technique that has entered Lucian culture is lang dévivé, which is when the singer says the opposite of his true meaning.[20] Other genres include:
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Other genres include:
- Baithak Gana
- Indo-Caribbean
- Aleke
- Kawina
Trinidad and Tobago
Calypso
Calypso is a Trinidadian music, which traditionally uses a slow tempo to accompany vocalist-composers, or calypsonians. Songs are often improvised and humorous, with sexual innuendo, political and social commentary, and picong, a style of lyricism that teases people in a light-hearted way. Calypso is competitively performed in calypso tents at Carnival.[19] Calypso uses rhythms derived from West Africa, with cut time, and features dance as an important component.[22] Calypso's roots were frequently ascribed to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda or the Virgin Islands. Calypso can be traced back to at least 1859, when a visiting ornithologist in Trinidad ascribed calypso's origins in British ballads.[2] While calypso has a diverse heritage, calypso became a distinct genre when it developed in Trinidad.[18] The word caliso refers to topical songs in the dialect of Saint Lucia, and may be linguistically related to the word calypso.[2][23]
Cariso
Cariso is a kind of Trinidadian folk music, and an important ancestor of
Chutney
Soca
Soca is a style of Caribbean music originating in Trinidad and Tobago.
Soca originally combined the melodic lilting sound of
Other
- Afrosoca
- Chut-kai-pang
- Chutney-soca
- Caribbean pop
- Gospelypso
- Indo-Caribbean
- Kaiso
- Pan music
- Parang
- Pichakaree
- Rapso
- Yahdees
Venezuela
- Musica llanera
- Merengue
- Gaita
- Tambores
Virgin Islands
Careso
- Careso is a Virgin Islander song form, which is now entirely performed for special holiday and appreciation or education events, by folkloric ensembles. It is similar to quelbe in some ways, but has more sustained syllables, a more African melodic style and an all female, call and response format with lyrics that function as news and gossip communicator, also commemorating and celebrating historical events.[25]
Other
- Scratch band
- Bamboula
- Masquerade music
Quelbe
Quelbe is a form of Virgin Islander folk music that originated on
Yucatán, Mexico
References
- ISBN 1566393388.
- ^ JSTOR 924610.
- ^ a b Garnice, Michael. "What Is Mento?". Mento Music. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
- ^ a b Nye, Stephen. "Trojan Calypso Box Set liner notes". Savage Jaw. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
- ^ Gordon, Leroy. "When Steel Talks: "The Story of Pan in Antigua."".
- ISBN 9781906190712.
- ISBN 0-8153-1865-0.
- ISBN 0-8153-1865-0.
- ^ "Culture: A Rich and Diverse Heritage". Geographica: Bonaire. Retrieved December 3, 2005.
- ISBN 1-56159-174-2.
- ISBN 1-85828-636-0.
- ^ "The African Folk Music Tradition from Guyana: A Discourse and Performance" (PDF). Brown Bag Colloquium Series 2003–2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 28, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
- ^ Seals, Ray. "The Making of Popular Guyanese Music". Retrieved October 1, 2006.
- ^ Wise, Brian (9 June 2006). "Band's Haitian Fusion Offers Fellow Immigrants a Musical Link to Home". New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ^ Eve Hayes de Kalaf. "HSG - HSG". HSG.
- ISBN 9781592134649. Retrieved 29 January 2014.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b "The History of Jamaican Music 1959-1973". GlobalVillageIdiot.net. 31 October 2000. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ^ a b Rao, Shivu (May 2002). "Jolly Boys and Mento". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
- ^ ISBN 1-59213-463-7.
- ISBN 0-8153-1865-0.
- ^ "The Arts and Literature". Cultural Profiles Project. Archived from the original on October 1, 2006. Retrieved September 27, 2005.
- JSTOR 779483.
- ^ "Calypso - The Evolution of the Calypso". Calypso Music in Trinidad and Tobago. National Heritage Library. Archived from the original on October 14, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
- ISSN 1543-0855. Archived from the originalon May 14, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
- ^ ISBN 0-8153-1865-0.
- Cumbia music by country#Mexico
Further reading
- Brill, Mark. Music of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2nd Edition, 2018. Taylor & Francis ISBN 1138053562
- Manuel, Peter. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae (Temple University Press, 1995). ISBN 1566393388