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NAME: ID: COURSE LECTURER: DATE: ASSIGNMENT

STEDMAN HAZELL 1998010891 RES IOO MR. JASON ALEXANDER 21ST MARCH 2011 LITERATURE REVIEW ON CALYPSO

FROM THEN TO NOW

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CALYPSO FROM THEN TO NOW

Trinidad and Tobago has been known as the land of steelband and calypso. Calypso is the indigenous music of Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the entire Caribbean. It can be described as the folk music of the West Indian native. It is defined as a style of Afro-Caribbean Music originating in Trinidad and Tobago, and whose roots are embedded in the soil of West African Traditions fertilised by French cultural expressions.(Belgrove, Sterling, 2010). The rhythm and the lyrics tend to be more important than the melody. In the beginning it was the lyrics that calypso singers used to entertain the patrons of nightclubs, hotel restaurants, and other places where people gathered or frequent for whatever purpose. This was done in exchange for monetary donations from the patrons who, at most times were pleased at the humour and lyrical mastery of the singers. ( Maharaj, George, 2004) Calypso music became something of an international craze when Harry Belafonte first scored a major U.S. hit in 1956 with "Day-O" (the Banana Boat Song), a reworked version of a traditional Jamaican mento song. Belafonte later became an important figure in the folk revival of the 1960s, and although critics say his music was really a watered-down version of Calypso, he still deserves credit for popularizing the genre. (Romer, Megan, 2010). Calypso songs were used just like the North American spirituals to spread information among slaves, repression of the African religion, social and cultural practices were just as responsible for the preservation of the African element in the calypso music. However since then the calypso has evolved into a very modern form of the original calypso. It has produced Soca-Chutney ,Groovy Soca And Power Soca. Calypso and its various forms and presentation have rallied our passion and determination as we advance upon the journey of life. Calypso in any form ignites, soothes and influences our emotions and behaviour. (Belgrove, Sterling, 2010).
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It is the forum where every happening is recorded and

brought to the people. It is history, scandals, issues and events, significant

milestones and experiences all captured in lyrics, rhythm and melody and sung for the people. In England when something out of the ordinary takes place, the cartoonist comes into play and make the event known to the people, In Trinidad it is the calypso singer that the people turn to for the commentary of the day (Maharaj, George,2004). In the late nineteenth century going into the early twentieth century calypso singers actually belonged to a carnival band. The carnival band had agents ,agencies and sponsors supplying materials for costumes sponsoring music and refreshments., in return the carnival band advertised the products for the two days of carnival. They even hired calypso singers to compose jingles and ditties, advertising the products, for the two days and so the calypso tents started. They were originally named after the products they were advertising. perhaps it is true to say that it was the carnival band tent that inspired the calypsonians to write jingles, many of which became carnival leggoes, the Mavis Powder road march was one of those It was sung about 1924. (De Leon, Raphael, 1978). With the birth of the carnival band tents, calypsonians then had a stable environment to showcase their work and so the carnival band tents shifted to carnival band practice and eventually to carnival calypso tent just as it is known today. The tent also became commercialise around the 1920s when an entrance fee of 2was charged, the calypso tent was built every carnival season, which started on January 1st every year. It was built with bamboo sidings, in the early years it was roof less, but as the tent became more commercialised and patrons comfort was an issue, galvanised roofs were erected, of course, that caused the entrance fee to go up to 12 in 1933. As the artform evolved, the sound changed, the structure of what was called a calypso changed, prize money was introduced around the early fifties. Calypsonians competed against each other unofficially for very little prizes, but this changed and prize money was introduced. Prizes are now in the million dollar range. A calypso monarch was crowned every carnival season and each of the genres has its own monarch in
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present time. Soca, and by extension, power-soca and groovy-soca, and socachutney, all developed as their own genre of music together with that of calypso. In addition to the changes calypso went through as a genre of music, it also gave birth to soca. Thus Soca music originated in Trinidad and Tobago. It is widely accepted that it was created by Lord Shorty (born Garfield Blackman). He noticed that Calypso music was threatened by the more popular reggae music and dying out and attempted to create a new hybrid that was more appealing to the masses. He fused Indian music with calypso music and this resulted in a more energetic hybrid called solka, which later became known as soca. Lord Shorty introduced soca to the world in 1973 with his hit song, Indrani. (Cazaubon, Mantius, 2007). The Soca music then give rise to a fast soca called power-soca and a much slower one called groovy-soca. Power-soca has tempos of over 150 beats whereas grovey-soca has tempos of around 115 beats per minute. While these two new genres were evolving, another offshoot of calypso and soca was also being fostered on the people of the Caribbean, socachutney or chutney-soca. Chutney soca is a blend of East Indian chutney music and soca. Chutney Soca is an up-tempo, rhythmic type of song, accompanied by traditional Indian musical instruments such as the dholak, tassa, the harmonium and the dhantal. The line between different kinds of soca music is becoming less and less clearly defined. It can sometimes be very difficult and controversial to pin-point what is groovy, power. There is so much fusion taking place that it is often difficult to tell whether a song is really a soca song. For instance some have argued that some soca are not soca but are R&B with a West Indian influence. While I do not hold that view, it goes to show that there are no clear distinctions and definitions. Soca music, like other forms of music is an art and cannot be restricted to a specific or exclusive mold. (Romer, Megan, 2010). While calypso is the voice of the people, Rapso, another offshoot with its calypso style lyrics and rhythms influenced by the musical experience of the Shango/the Kaiso (Calypso) and robber-talk (a Carnival Theatre) has also become popular.
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There is a popular myth that rapso is the fusion of American rap music with soca, hence the name rapso. Sounds plausible, but this is not true. Rapso is a unique style of street poetry from Trinidad and Tobago that originated in the 1970's. Rapso was created to relate to the everyday experiences of everyday people just as calypso. So on my opinion calypso has developed and grown over the years and has given birth to a number of genres, that cannot be fully separated and isolated from calypso. Any listener of music, in the twin island state of Trinidad & Tobago, would realise there are many forms of the indigenous calypso to listen to and enjoy.

Bibliography

1. 2.

Maharaj, George, 2004, The Roots of Calypso, vol.1, Toronto. De Leon Raphael, 2004, Trinidad. Romer, Megan, Calypso from France to Trinidad, 2004,

2007,

Calypso,

http://worldmusic.about.com/od/genres/p.htm, Louisiana
3.

Belgrove, Sterling, 2010, Calypso: Classicism of our Time, Launch Of The Office Of The Calypso Monarch, Trinidad.

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6 4.

Cazaubon,

Mantius,

2007,

What

is

soca

music,

http://www.socafreak.com/, St. Lucia.

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