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 Steal 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
I think we're gonna have to organize some Caiso songwriting workshops for the youths coming up...Why? Because they are lost in the wilderness of nowhere it all started with Blue Boy and Explanier and all those guys who gave up our Calypso to go in the direction of Soca which means Soul-Calypso in doing so they gave up our drum beat which was the main ingredient of our music and they embraced the disco style of drums which is very straight meanwhile the reggae guys took our calypso beat which we gave up they brought it back and conquered the world with the so called dancehall beat and now the mexicans are using the same calypso beat which we gave up and they are calling it reggaeton. So now we have come full circle and our youths are writing songs going in the dancehall direction......This new music which bewillders everyone is actually called Tropical Pop.Now that Kitch is gone our T&T caiso identity seems to be in real trouble.Time to wake up and do something about it!
Instead of the unique calypso sound of yesterday, we now have a sound that belongs in the musical ghetto called "'world music".
There is hope, though. As the soca generation is aging , I noticed in the last couple years that the tempo has mellowed, and the soca singers seem to be returning to a more traditional, "old school " sound with tunes last year like "Trini" and "Town ting" which were great calypsos that also had a modern contemporary sound.
Jeff Medina > Glenroy R JosephJanuary 1, 2012 at 11:35pm
Yeah I remember when Sparrow said to me once "We use to write a song with an Intro then you go into your verse where you tell your story then you bring in the chorus which is your hook then you go back to your verse
and continue the story and after you are done with the story you go into a jam at the end of the song.But these days people are writing without a story and the only thing they have is the Jam at the end which is the whole song ." Hey the Laws of Music are more strict than the Laws of Man.
Change is constant, that's true, but when you change, especially in music, you progress not regress, and that is exactly what we have now,complete regression.. From the moment this new crew dropped the bass line which is the heart of soca music, they became opened to all other influences and rhythmic styles. Personally I refuse to call what I hear, soca. I think it's an insult to the beautiful, melodic and pulsating sound we had all through the eighties and into the nineties. But hey, change is inevitable.
Hello to all, I am a Trinidadian working for the US Army with 35 years of service and I must say, Thanks very much for keeping from going mad giving me this good music. I am 15 miles from N. Korea and every day so far has been a good day. My tour of duty is coming to an end and I am heading back to the States where I can hop to Trinidad and enjoy Trinidad and I do not have to take this 20 hrs flight to the States. Special shootout to all my friends for supporting me since I have here in South Korea. Much love. MUCH LOVE
Season greetings to all when steel talks viewers and members.
GP, you are not old fashioned, you know what you are explaining from a musical point of view. Data has always been a grand issue in T&T music. As I keep saying over and over "many of us don't like nor love our own music". Two of these reasons are, "the media and communication networks have forcing us to listen and view too much foreign music".
Just to add as a musician and due respect to the Reggae and Dancehall music and its marketing. It don't feel good when I am promoting the music of T&T and I am asked, "what part of Jamaica is Trinidad and Tobago. This told me something is wrong!!!!!
Replies
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 Steal 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
Hey Brother Glenroy
I think we're gonna have to organize some Caiso songwriting workshops for the youths coming up...Why? Because they are lost in the wilderness of nowhere it all started with Blue Boy and Explanier and all those guys who gave up our Calypso to go in the direction of Soca which means Soul-Calypso in doing so they gave up our drum beat which was the main ingredient of our music and they embraced the disco style of drums which is very straight meanwhile the reggae guys took our calypso beat which we gave up they brought it back and conquered the world with the so called dancehall beat and now the mexicans are using the same calypso beat which we gave up and they are calling it reggaeton. So now we have come full circle and our youths are writing songs going in the dancehall direction......This new music which bewillders everyone is actually called Tropical Pop.Now that Kitch is gone our T&T caiso identity seems to be in real trouble.Time to wake up and do something about it!
Jeff Medina
You make some good points, Jeff.
Instead of the unique calypso sound of yesterday, we now have a sound that belongs in the musical ghetto called "'world music".
There is hope, though. As the soca generation is aging , I noticed in the last couple years that the tempo has mellowed, and the soca singers seem to be returning to a more traditional, "old school " sound with tunes last year like "Trini" and "Town ting" which were great calypsos that also had a modern contemporary sound.
Yeah I remember when Sparrow said to me once "We use to write a song with an Intro then you go into your verse where you tell your story then you bring in the chorus which is your hook then you go back to your verse
and continue the story and after you are done with the story you go into a jam at the end of the song.But these days people are writing without a story and the only thing they have is the Jam at the end which is the whole song ." Hey the Laws of Music are more strict than the Laws of Man.
Change is constant, that's true, but when you change, especially in music, you progress not regress, and that is exactly what we have now,complete regression.. From the moment this new crew dropped the bass line which is the heart of soca music, they became opened to all other influences and rhythmic styles. Personally I refuse to call what I hear, soca. I think it's an insult to the beautiful, melodic and pulsating sound we had all through the eighties and into the nineties. But hey, change is inevitable.
Hello to all, I am a Trinidadian working for the US Army with 35 years of service and I must say, Thanks very much for keeping from going mad giving me this good music. I am 15 miles from N. Korea and every day so far has been a good day. My tour of duty is coming to an end and I am heading back to the States where I can hop to Trinidad and enjoy Trinidad and I do not have to take this 20 hrs flight to the States. Special shootout to all my friends for supporting me since I have here in South Korea. Much love. MUCH LOVE
Ian
Dis tune sound real good.... sweet combination "all over"..... party rocker...
Season greetings to all when steel talks viewers and members.
GP, you are not old fashioned, you know what you are explaining from a musical point of view. Data has always been a grand issue in T&T music. As I keep saying over and over "many of us don't like nor love our own music". Two of these reasons are, "the media and communication networks have forcing us to listen and view too much foreign music".
Just to add as a musician and due respect to the Reggae and Dancehall music and its marketing. It don't feel good when I am promoting the music of T&T and I am asked, "what part of Jamaica is Trinidad and Tobago. This told me something is wrong!!!!!
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.
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