2012 TRINIDAD SOCA MUSIC RELEASES

[Pan Times]

[GospelPan]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I can't understand why we call this "Soca" music.

 

To me, this is a totally new genre of music, which maybe should be called something like, "Reggae Soca" or "Soca Reggae" and even those titles may not be accurate enough because the cross-over beats they use, are a specific style of reggae called "Dancehall Reggae Music". So, maybe titles like "Dancehall Reggae Soca" or "Soca Dancehall Reggae" would be better. My point is, the music is totally new and should therefore be a new genre.

 

If you take Reggae and merge it with blues, you can't call that Reggae anymore because it is something totally new. A perfect example is where they blended soul music , jazz and R&B to create a new genre called, Funk.

 

GP

[helen barton]

good point

[Martin Maitland]

GospelPan

It is very interesting… just when we thought we concord the music, it once again evolve into something strange and not Soca at all. We have been here in the early 80’s when Lord Shorty as he was called, condemned the music he created changed his name and left for the forest.

Soca is really a melting pot of riddims and not just one flavor as Blues or Jazz. Just listen to the song that won Groove Soca Monarch 2011(Worthless)… Defiantly an African influence dating back to Paul Simon and his African connections and arrangements.

Carl and Carol Jacob’s “Love Up” and “Bend Down and Rock”in the eighty’s was not considered Soca either and that too caused a big outcry then, only for me to be in a in a nightclub in Belgium dancing to it along with “Dollar Wine” and to tell my then Air force colleagues it came from my country.

This brings me to my final point on the music… Lots of Trinidadians do not appreciate their own and will change on a whim just to be current. I lived in England and Scotland for almost 25 years and played Calypso; Soca and Pan Music to my workmates educating them about Carnival and Steel Pan, only to have them encounter some Trinidadians who prefer to sound and act Jamaican and play Jamaican music when they visited Trinidad on my recommendation. What a shame we all can’t appreciate what is our own

[Noel Simon]

I 'm not feeling this first round of 2k12 releases. Out of the 20 songs, only 4 that I like; It's still early

 

[kaiso]

yu might be old fashion - but yu right.

Dis music us what was called back in the 80's small island music. No disrespect intended.

When we had lyrical kaisonians creating real kaiso - we dident have to listen to this.

 

 

[Glenroy R Joseph]

You may not be politically correct, but you have a point, Kaiso. 

What we call "soca" today sounds to me more like the music of the other islands, especially the Virgin Islands, that I heard in the seventies; and less like original soca music as done by the likes of Shorty, Maestro, Valentino and others..

 

[Ansel]

This is ah new genre, they are calling it island pop

[Bugs]

The name island "Island Pop" sounds like a good description.

 

bugs

[Bugs]

Glenroy, nothing remains the same.  The music is constantly evolving.  Do you remember what they were saying when Bradley dropped "Party Tonight" or "Disco Daddy" with Nelson?

bugs 

[Glenroy R Joseph]

You missed my point, Bugs.

In the sixties and seventies there were calypso dance bands in the US Virgun Islands that had a distinctly different sound from the the calypso bands of the Eastern Caribbean, Trinidad, Barbados , Grenada etc

The Jam Band is one name that come to mind.

Some of those bands featured vocalists before they became a fixture with Trinidad bands.These bands performed popular calypsos, but also a lot of their own stuff.

INMO ,modern soca music is closer to the sound of these bands, than to the sound of original soca. 

And I do know that things change.

Anyone familiar with these bands, please comment. 

[GospelPan]

Bugs, you've just given me confidence with those words, "music is constantly evolving" because next year I'm coming strong with my own "pan" tune...try not to laugh to hard, LOL

But seriously, it will contain a solo written by the late Bradley, though the style of the tune has a Ray Holman feel to it. The song is ready to record, but I just don't have the money to start the project, so it will have to wait...I will, however release a simple calypso (not for pan) in a few weeks; when it's finished I will say more.

[helen barton]

also good point