Caribbean Carnival is the term used for a number of events that take place in many of the Caribbean islands annually. The Caribbean's Carnivals all have several common themes based on folklore, culture, and religion, not on amusement rides.
Carnival tradition is based on a number of disciplines including: "Playing Mas"/Masquerade; Calypso Music and crowning a Calypso King or Monarch; Panorama (Steel Band Competition); Jouvert morning; and a number of other traditions.
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Carnival in the Caribbean |
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Fête is a French word meaning festival or holiday, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.
It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête, pronounced IPA: [fe?t]. These are usually outdoor shows held on village greens or recreation grounds with a variety of activities and are organised by an ad hoc committee of volunteers from organisations such as residents associations. Attractions seen at village fêtes include raffles, coconut shies, bat a rat stalls, white elephant stalls, cakes, and home produce such as jam and pickles. Entertainment could include morris dancing, tug of war, fancy dress and pet shows.
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Origins of the Steel Band |
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The Steel band originated from what was known as the Tamboo Bamboo ensemble which consisted of instruments of bamboo cut to various lengths and sizes which simulated the four main voices of music, soprano, alto, bass and tenor. The Tamboo Bamboo ensembles replaced the African Drums which were outlawed by the then Colonial government in the 1880's. This type of musical accompaniment was used for Carnival Parades and street celebrations.
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Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.
While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based on a rhythmic style characterized by regular beats on the off-beat, known as the skank. Reggae is normally slower than ska, and usually has accents on the first and third beat in each bar.
Reggae song lyrics deal with many subjects, including religion, love, sexuality, peace, relationships, poverty, injustice and other social and political issues.
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Reggaeton (also spelled reggaetón, and known as reguetón and reggaetón in Spanish) is a form of urban music that became popular with Latin American youth in the early 1990s. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Originating in Panama, reggaeton blends Jamaican music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba, plena, salsa, merengue, latin pop and bachata as well as that of hip hop, contemporary R&B, and electronica. However, reggaeton is also combined with rapping or singing in Spanish. The influence of this genre has spread to the wider Latino communities in the United States, as well as the Latin American audience. While it takes influences from hip hop and Jamaican dancehall, it would be wrong to define reggaeton as the Hispanic or Latino version of either of these genres; reggaeton has its own specific beat and rhythm, whereas Latino hip hop is simply hip hop recorded by artists of Latino descent.
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Soca is a form of dance music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from calypso music. It originally combined the melodic lilting sound of calypso with insistent percussion (which is often electronic in recent music) and local chutney music. Soca music has evolved in the last 20 years primarily by musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries including Trinidad, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, United States Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Jamaica.
The nickname of the Trinidad and Tobago national football team, the Soca Warriors, refers to this musical genre.
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Soca is a modern form of calypso with an up-tempo beat. There is a
popular misconception that Soca is a fusion of American soul music and
traditional calypso. Hence the name "so-ca," soul/calypso. Though this
sounds plausible, it is simply not true. Soca music originated as a
fusion of calypso with Indian rhythms, thus combining the musical
traditions to the two major ethnic groups of Trinidad and Tobago.
Born October 6, 1941 in Lengua, Trinidad, Garfield Blackman would
become the creator of soca. Blackman began singing calypso at the
tender age of seven. Performing under the name Lord Shorty, he rose to
fame in 1963 with his recording of Clock and Dagger. The name Lord
Shorty is a paradoxical reference to his imposing height of 6-ft 4-in.
Talk that calypso was dying, and reggae was the new thing, prompted
Lord Shorty to experiment with the calypso rhythm for nearly a decade.
He combined Indian rhythm instruments (particularly the dholak, tabla
and dhantal) with traditional calypso music. The result was a new
energetic musical hybrid called soca. In 1973, Lord Shorty introduced
soca to the world with his hit song Ïndrani. The release of his 1974
album Endless Vibrations prompted dozens of musicians to adopt the new
soca style.
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Please come join us @ Vinoy Park, downtown St. Pete on Sunday, June 13, 2010 for Alison Hinds. 
Did you know? 
