Sweet Soca Music

The Only Remedy for Carnival Fever

Trinidad and Tobago's famous up-tempo Carnival music had its rise in the 70s and is nowadays accompanied by Western beats and pop influences. It is the sounds of the street with iron-beating rhythm sections heard at Carnival time to create a special sound geared to masqueraders and patrons to „chip“ and jump up to.

While in Jamaica reggae replaced calypso and mento and developed into a worldwide respected music genre, calypso was predominantly heard in Trinidad and Tobago and other Eastern Caribbean countries. Influenced by American soul and funk, Caribbean musicians have been experimenting with music significantly in the 70s.

The closeness to the Carnival celebration goes back to a long history with African and European traditions. The masqueraders are playing a special role since the start beginning of calypso history.

MORE ABOUT CALYPSO

1970s: THE „SOUL OF CALYPSO“

Major innovators were Lord Shorty, who claims the genre invention for himself, the Mighty Shadow, Maestro, Merchant, and Blue Boy. Jesse Sewer describes the „heavy syncopated bass line and dense electronic instrumentation“ which was added to calypso arrangements. The tempo was speeded up as well.

While Lord Shorty, later known as Ras Shorty I, recorded in interviews that he wanted to unify the African and Indian population with his music, his legacy is included by far more musicians, composers, and arrangers of this time. Even though his album “Love Man” unrecognizably uses Indian instrumentation, the compositions sound traditionally like the ones of the other artists, which released music in this period of time.

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Still soca at this time was perceived as a musical experiment: a variant of calypso involving certain changes in the rhythm section.

1980s : HOT SOCA TAKING OVER

Since the 1980s, soca has helped calypsonians to enter the world music scene. While discovering that they can reach international audiences more effectively with party songs. Their popularity was rising, social commentary was often completely removed from the arrangements, still many had more than one direct meaning. Also, other Caribbean Islands like Grenada and Barbados produced more soca. The best example is Arrow from Montserrat who claimed world popularity with his „hot hot hot“.

Baron, Scrunter, and Sugar Aloes, as well as Rootsman and Explainer, have had several hit records in this time.

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By the mid-eighties, after the mixing of Afro- and Indo-Trinidadian sounds was almost no longer audible, soca (then predominately heard as Afro-Trinidadian music was (re) appropriated by the Indian community to produce chutney soca, a fusion unmistakably merging the sounds of two music traditions.

MORE ABOUT CHUTNEY SOCA

1990s : THE MONARCH OF SOCA

With the influence of Jamaican dancehall and also chutney the music genre was able to result in several new fusions to rapso, which emphasizes chanted speech, as well as the so-called ragga soca and bashment soca. Also, Trinidad Christmas music adapted soca beats and led to parang soca.

By the 1990s, compared to calypso, soca not only enjoyed the greatest media exposure in both press and radio but was also generating the most of the income during Carnival. This will not change to this day. Dance and in particular „winning“ became a central expression and attraction of soca. This dominant dance movement is typical of many African-derived musical traditions in the Caribbean and it is characterized by winding or gyrating the hips. After Jocelyne Guilbault: „the propulsive rhythms for the most soca songs, with their frequent calls to wine and execute other moves, conjure up a festive and playful mood“.

While calypso singing competitions have been famous since the 1960s, also soca became a music genre with a competitive factor due to its closeness to the Carnival celebrations. Since 1993 the 'Soca Monarch' is crowned on an annual celebration held on 'Fantastic Friday', three days before the Carnival celebration. Artists like Iwer George, Preacher, and Ronnie McIntosh made major contributions in this period, as well as Super Blue (Blue Boys' new sobriquet). Rags became important for the masqueraders to wave around and whistles were added as tools of masquerade band leaders directing their patrons through the streets. The distinctive sound was later on included in the beats to animate rhythmic moves.

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This is a 45 min concert piece of Machel Montano and the full Xtatic band from 1996 broadcasted on Trinidad & Tobago Television.

2000s : LET'S GET GROOVY

The term groovy soca took hold in Trinidad & Tobago in the 2000s, as a label for the more melodic, pop-inspired soca emerging at that time. The smoother sounds are more melodious. The lyrics and feel of the song encourage us to dance and have a good time. Bunji Garlin became a household name in international collaborations while crossing and fusing his rap-style mostly sub-cultural genres and later tropical bass remixers.

David Rudder's "Trini to D'Bone" embraces national pride and is a huge classic today. It was firstly released in 2003.

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KMC released "Soul On Fire" in 2005 and it became an international hit that got remixed by Fatman Scoop and Beenie Man.

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Power Soca on the other hand crossed tempo borders while absorbing international influences from bouyon, kuduro and the "Jab Jab" of Grenada. In 2005 a distinction was officially made when organizers of the 'International Soca Monarch' competition opted to divide the competition into two separate categories, 'Power' and 'Groovy'. This division remained in effect until 2016 when the showcase reverted to one single winner of the competition. Internationally Vincentian Kevin Lyttle remains to this day with his „Turn me on“ as the most popular soca song worldwide. Also, Rupee from the Bahamas turned out with „tempted to touch“ which became a hit song for many underground and mainstream DJs worldwide. Following the debut by soca superstar Patrice Roberts. She was one of the outstanding voices in soca like Nadia Batson and Destra Garcia, which were already active since that time.

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Here are two more examples of vibrant power soca, by Superblue and Blaxx. Both artists contributed a lot of hit records.

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Soca goes Global

International Events & Local Highlights

2010s : TRENDING TO AFRO SOCA

One of the latest trends in afro soca is a response by Caribbean artists and producers to the rise of afrobeats. The first recorded productions were in 2014 by Machel Montano and Nigerian singer Timaya collaborating. In 2015 Olatunji Yearwood won the Soca Monarch respectively with his „Ola“ on the „Kan Kan Riddim“. The music video was recorded in South Africa. Enjoy the vibes!

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For many soca lovers worldwide, Machel Montano is the undisputed king, which has been an effective messenger for the genre since he started to perform in 1986 at the age of 7 with traditional calypso compositions. With the help of his family, including the management of both of his parents, his career would guide him across the world, promoting soca on an international scale and collaborating with a lot of popular artists, like Shaggy, Sean Paul, and Wyclef Jean.

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This brought soca a lot of new listeners, even though his popularity never crossed mainstream music directly. While looking back on his career, they collectively were working day and night in hopes to come up with something that they could identify with as young men in Trinidad and Tobago.

Machel Montano & Super Blue

This musical era involved a transformation of the audience in terms of age group (younger people), class (including people from the higher society), outreach (presenting it to new audiences), and look (greater emphasis on wearing sexy clothes or on exhibiting sexiness). For Machel Montano, changing perspectives on traditional ideas of originality has also involved learning about new instrumental techniques and studio technology (including sampling and turntable effects). Montano’s particular way of thinking about lyrics and dancing out of his perspective as a composer, as well as producer and consumer, in all cases is an embodied experience. In the meantime, he celebrated his wedding gracefully, in an extravagant style close to his popular „Machel Monday“ celebration.

Fete after Fete

Soca Worldwide

International soca events have been emerging in every European country. Groups of soca lovers, calling themselves the ‚Dutch Soca Lovers‘ or the ‚Swiss Soca Crew‘ create communities to travel together to events and have a good time. For more than 50 years Notting Hill Carnival is the forerunner of the diaspora carnival. Since then the events are expanding in Europe, and also in London (UK), soca events on monthly events can have more than 200 visitors. Hubs like Berlin and Zoomer Carnival (Rotterdam, Netherlands) brought soca lovers together until today. I wrote an article about the European soca movement in 2015 and published it together with a mixtape showcasing the artists, all of them inspired by the legacy of soca with its origin in Trinidad and Tobago.

ARTICLE ABOUT SOCA IN EUROPE HERE

With soca-themed parties and fetes, color codes in outfits, and a fantastic promotion, soca events are now the places to be, besides Carnival celebrations worldwide. The new trend is soca events in exotic places, including boat cruises providing full party trips to Ibiza or Dubai. The Uber Soca Cruise is one of these popular and well-visited events and tours, sometimes even having more than one ship on the worldwide waters.

Watch yourself and judge, but I wished I could have joined that trip:

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Here is a vibrant performance by Bunji Garlin for you, recorded in 2018. Enjoy this massive crowd!

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2020s : THE NEXT GENERATION

Soca challenged the very notions of modernity, authenticity, originality, and cultural independence that calypso aesthetics had embodied. Often the music is seen as a Carnival product, and not recognized by the background of the musicians and their particular story. The seasonal competition of being under the top songs for the Carnival never stopped.

The eternal goal seems to be still to become the 'Road March Winner'. The seasonality of the music has its benefit in the promotion of the music. Releases are adapted to the dates of Carnival for each year. The enormous push of certain tracks during that time can be discussed, as well as the fact, that songs from earlier years are not often played by DJs on the trucks, even though it's still Carnival music. Instead, the seasonal favorites are getting enormous playbacks and appear also often remixed or as so-called road mixes (extended and more instrumentalized versions of the original songs).

Due to COVID-19, the music industry was also in Trinidad and Tobago going through a hard time. Musicians mostly tried to promote their work online or virtually in concerts, that were online in front of a screen or just to enjoy on the radio. Due to the virus, several musicians lost their lives, including the soca singer Blaxx who contributed to immense worldwide well-received party hits.

The collection of information about soca music is rising with its massive seasonal outcome in vibrant songs. As some are musicians coming and going. There are a lot of artists to tell stories about. Long live soca on its longing for worldwide popularity, vibrant positive sounds, and the ability to infect you with carnival fever.

Last but not least I am sharing this beautiful unplugged version with you. Enjoy Patrice Roberts showcasing her talent with her hit song "Tender", released in 2021.

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Nowadays it is not easy to find great pieces of live recordings for soca music. Too many artists decide to get backed by DJs, playing the original track during their live performance. In a way, they are moving from the rhole of a singer to the MC of their own track. It is something discussible, still, there are fantastic examples of pure talent.

Latest Update: 12/10/22

Compiled by:

Mika

DJ & Researcher

TT MUSIC LIBRARY - VIRTUAL MUSIC ARCHIVE | JUKEBOX TT

Note: This article is a "work in progress". With every visit, more content will be added. Get in touch, if you have something to share.

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REFERENCES

Jocelyne Guibault (2007): Governing Sound – The cultural politics of Trinidad’s Carnival Music
University of Chicago, Ian Randle Publishers

Gerard Besson (2011): Calypso, Calypso Music
http:// caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2011/10/calypso-calypso-music.html

BBC (2017): The surprising politics of Calypso
http:// www.bbc.com/culture/story/20171010-the-surprising-politics-of-calypso

Yvonne Web (2012): Trinidad Guardian – History through the eyes of Calypsonians
http:// www.guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2012-02-09/history-through-eyes-calypsonians

Jesse Server (2017): The Rise of Soca
https:// daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/03/soca-guide

Ronald C. Emrit: Calypso History
https:// www.bestoftrinidad.com/calypso.html

Calypsoworld.org: Calypso in Trinidad – Carnival and Musical Traditions
(offline nowadays)

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