Soca music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soca, or soul calypso, is a dance music that originated in Trinidad from calypso. It combines the melodic lilting sound of calypso (based on the original Steel Pan) with insistent (usually electronic) percussion. Soca music has evolved in the last 20 years primarily by musicians from Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, and the Lesser Antilles.

The reputed father of soca was Lord Shorty (né 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 and Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, which made soca a West Indian social wave, but the Baha men, Kevin Lyttle,Machel and 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 1990's and now the new century Soca has evolved into a blend of musical styles. Machel Montano's collaborations with Jamacian musicians (Ret Rat and Beenie Man),American musician (Walker)and Japanese artists have pushed the boundries 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.

Some of the greatest soca artists of all time are Shadow, Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow, Krosfyah, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and more recently artists such as Alison Hinds, Atlantik, Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Shurwayne Winchester, Denise Belfon, and Maximus Dan.

Some soca songs that have become hits:

"Hot Hot Hot" - Buster Poindexter (originally recorded by Arrow)
"Follow the leader" - Soca Boys (originally recorded by Nigel and Marvin Lewis), a more recent version by S.B.S.
"Who Let the Dogs Out" - Baha Men (originally recorded by Anslem Douglas)
"Sweet Soca Music" - Sugar Daddy
"Turn Me On" - Kevin Lyttle
"Tempted to Touch" - Rupee
"We Not Givin' Up" - Machel Montano and Xtatik
"With or Without You" -Machel and Walker
"Faluma" - Alison Hinds

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

Rapso : trinidad dialect hip-hop with smooth calypso melody and bold lyric
Chutney-soca: A fusion of traditional Indian percussion and style of singing and Calypso; Tempo usually around 154 BPM
Ragga Soca: A fusion of Jamaican Dancehall and Trinidad's Soca and the original soca, which is an uptempo calypso beat with moderate bass and electronic instruments.

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

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