by Raffique Shah - Wired868
I don’t think Trinidad’s Carnival is dying, as many people say it is.
For the traditionalists, it’s a case of wishful thinking. They want to see the jarring noise that passes for music—songs that have no melody, only hook lines and tempo—consigned to the dustbin of Carnival history.
And they think the absence of a dominant hit song or competing songs this year, signals the beginning of the end of an unwelcome element that has stymied the creative musical juices that once enriched the festival.
The fiasco that was the International Soca Monarch competition—depleted enthusiasm, p-poor offerings, little television interest—is seen as further evidence of the demise of the noisy distraction.
Bearing in mind that soca or “road” music is but one component of our Carnival, albeit a critical element. The others, calypso, pan music, concerts, fetes and masquerade—must be considered when we seek to analyse what is happening to the festival; whether it is dying, stagnated or undergoing a metamorphosis.
I think, or maybe hope, that what we are witnessing is the latter...
...The lone art-form that has risen above this self-induced cultural wasteland is pan music.
The instrument, the players and the music get better every year. Yet, they get the smallest slice of the State-Carnival pie.
Replies
Shah needs to stay in Trinidad. The festival is dying. He just detailed everything that's wrong. We need to start over...start with morality and decency in public.
Has anyone notice that the Government is funding activities that's not appealing to the public anymore?
Raffique is right.
The reason/s for the season is/are always in flux. That is the dynamic of how societies develop.
I have watched the changes for almost 80 years
The questions remain.
Can we as a society manage/ influence change in any particular direction?
If we think we should try, then in which of the competing groups' interests, and Is it even possible to agree?
There are many other questions of course.
How do we start this important dialogue?
I maintain that what is lacking is the energy that pan people brought to the streets of T&T in the post war years.
The steelbands brought poor youths to the streets , playing modestly priced mas . usually with clothes that we poor youths wore long after carnival.
Today's carnival has more in common with the "mas on trucks " era when carnival was a more middle class phenomenon than the period when the steelband was dominant.
Look who's playing mas today. Certainly not the pan people who were most prominent on the streets of T&T decades ago. (except for All Stars , of course)
No wonder certain among us are quite happy to keep the steelbands contained in the savanna.
As to the music , someone described it as "market driven music" and a musical representation of capitalism gone mad.
I cannot better that !
Mr Shah, carnival has been on a downward spiral before 2016, you said " It seems that more people are drifting away from carnival because they no longer see the overall package as being attractive as it once was" Carnival is broken, are we going to fix it or play the wait and see game as we are accustom doing?