After learning about many cultures and their music in this class, I thought about cultures we didn't touch on in class that I wanted to learn more about and help educate my peers,so I chose to talk about the culture and music of the Caribbean Islands. There are many different genres of Caribbean music but I will be touching on the three most popular genres of music which are calypso,soca and reggae. Also I will be talking about famous artists from the Caribbean Islands.
The first genre of Barbadian music I will be talking about is calypso. Calypso is an upbeat, call and response Afro-Caribbean genre of music that originated in Trinidad & Tobago but spread throughout the southern and eastern Caribbean islands. In the eighteenth century calypso made its first appearance amongst communities of African slaves. As time passed, calypso began to develop with the help of French, English, Spanish and African influences. There are four characteristics when it comes to calypso music.The first characteristic is folk origins. A lot of popular calypso music are interpretations of Trinidadian folk songs. The second characteristic is that songs have French and English lyrics. Calypso singers used to sing in french creole,but as time passed and english became a more popular language the lyrics changed to the new tongue. The third characteristic is that the songs are led by a griot. A griot is a storyteller in the community, they were used to tell stories and passed down lessons to the younger generation.The final characteristic is that calypso music is used with drums or steel pan
Another genre of Barbadian music is soca. Soca is closely related to calypso even though people say that soca is a subgenre of calypso. Even though that calypso and soca are closely related there is a difference.There are 9 different types of soca music which are chutney soca, raga soca, afrosoca, groovy soca, power soca , steelband soca,parang soca, bouyon soca and bashment soca.
The final genre of Caribbean music I will be talking about is reggae. Reggae began to emerge in the late 1960’s. Instruments used to create reggae music include electric guitar, bass guitar and the drums.
There are many famous artists that have Caribbean roots and the first artist that I will be talking about is Rihanna. Her real name is Robyn Fenty. She grew up in Barbados along with her father and mother. Rihanna grew up listening to Caribbean music such as reggae, American hip-hop and R&B. Rihanna is a well known artist in the music industry and a successful business woman. Some of her top hits consist of We found love-ft.Calvin Harris,love on the brain,diamonds and work ft.Drake. Rihanna has many successful businesses that she owns such as Fenty beauty and she has her own real estate agency. Rihanna is known for giving back to the community. During the pandemic she offered 5 million dollars to help impoverished countries affected by the covid pandemic. Also, she donated $700,000 worth of ventilators to Barbados.
Another famous music artist with a Caribbean background is Nicki Minaj. She is known as the queen of R&B.Her real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty. Nicki had a rough childhood growing up. Her father was a drug addict and tried to kill her and her mother. Nicki is a well known artist around the world with many platinum records.
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