Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European, Asian and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African enslaved people (see Afro-Caribbean music), along with contributions from other communities (such as Indo-Caribbean music). Some of the styles to gain wide popularity outside the Caribbean include, bachata, merengue, palo, mambo, baithak gana, bouyon, cadence-lypso, calypso, soca, chutney, chutney-soca, compas, dancehall, jing ping, parang, pichakaree, punta, ragga, reggae, dembow, reggaeton, Wilders, salsa, and zouk. Caribbean music is also related to Central American and South American music.
The history of Caribbean music originates from the history of the Caribbean itself. That history is one of the native land invaded by outsiders; violence, slavery, and even genocide factor in.
Following Christopher Columbus' landing in 1492, Spain laid claim to the entire Caribbean. This claim was met with dissatisfaction from both the natives and Spain's neighbors in Europe; within a few years, battles between the European powers raged across the region. These battles, alongside the various European diseases which accompanied them, decimated the native tribes who inhabited the islands.
Thus the Caribbean was colonized as part of the various European empires. Native cultures were further eroded when the Europeans imported African slaves to work the sugar and coffee plantations on their island colonies. In many cases, native cultures (and native musics) were replaced by those imported from Africa and Europe.
At this point, whatever common Caribbean culture existed was splintered. Each of the European powers had imposed its own culture on the islands they had claimed. In the late 20th century, many Caribbean islands gained independence from colonial rule but the European influences can still be heard in the music of each subtly different culture.
Island-specific culture also informs the music of the Caribbean. Every island has its distinct musical styles, all inspired, to one degree or another, by the music brought over from the African slaves. As such, most Caribbean music, however unique to its own island culture, includes elements of African music - heavy use of percussion, complex rhythmic patterns, and call-and-response vocals. In many cases, the difference between one style and another comes down to the rhythms utilized in each music; every island has its own rhythmic sensibilities.
The complex deep origins of Caribbean music are best understood with a knowledge of Western Hemisphere colonial immigration patterns, human trafficking patterns, the resulting melting pot of people each of its nations and territories, and thus resulting influx of original musical influences. Colonial Caribbean ancestors were predominantly from West Africa, West Europe and India. In the 20th and 21st centuries immigrants have also come from Taiwan, China, Indonesia/Java and the Middle East. Neighboring Latin American and North American (particularly hip hop and pop music) countries have also naturally influenced Caribbean culture and vice versa. While there are musical commonalities among Caribbean nations and territories, the variation in immigration patterns and colonial hegemony tend to parallel the variations in musical influence. Language barriers (Spanish, Portuguese, English, Hindustani, Tamil, Telugu, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Yiddish, Yoruba, African languages, Indian languages, Amerindian languages, French, Indonesian, Javanese and Dutch) are one of the strongest influences.
Divisions between Caribbean music genres are not always well-defined, because many of these genres share common relations, instrumentation and have influenced each other in many ways and directions. For example, the Jamaican mento style has a long history of conflation with Trinidadian calypso. Elements of calypso have come to be used in mento, and vice versa, while their origins lie in the Caribbean culture, each uniquely characterized by influences from the Shango and Shouters religions of Trinidad and the Kumina spiritual tradition of Jamaica. Music from the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean are classified as tropical music in the Latin music industry.
Antigua and Barbuda By the mid-20th century Antigua and Barbuda had active calypso and steelpan scenes as part of its annual Carnival celebration. Hell's Gate, along with Brute Force and the Big Shell Steelband, were the first Caribbean steelbands to be recorded and featured on commercial records thanks to the efforts of the American record producer Emory Cook. Short Shirt, Swallow, and Obstinate were among the most popular calypsonians who competed in the island's annual calypso competition.
Benna
Benna is an uptempo Antiguan folk song, also spelled bennah and known as ditti. It is characterized by lyrics that focus on scandalous gossip, performed in a call and response style. It has also been a means of folk communication, spreading news and political commentary across the island. Other genres include:
Extempo Iron Band Pan music Soca
Bahamas
Goombay Junkanoo Rake-and-scrape Bahamian Rhyming Spiritual
Barbados
Folk Tuk Spouge Fling Calypso jazz Iron Band Ragga Socee Reggae Soca Bashment Soca
Belize
Punta Punta rock Chumba Fedu Brukdown Reggae Dancehall Cumbia Bachata
Colombia
Berroche Bullerengue Champeta Chandé Chalupa Cumbia Cumbión Fandango Garabato Grito e' monte Guacherna Guaracha Jalao Lumbalú Mapalé Merecumbé Millo Parrandín Paseaito Perillero Porro Reggaeton Salsa Son Faroto Son de Negro Son Sabanero Son Palenquero Tambora (Golpe de tambora) Terapia Zafra Vallenato y sus aires: Paseo Son Merengue Puya Tambora Abambucao Romanza vallenata Piqueria Calipso Foxtrot Mazurka Mento ModeUp Dancehall Pasillo Isleño Polka Praise Hymn Quadrille Reggae Schottis Socca Ska Vals isleño Zouk
Cuba
Abwe Afro-Cuban jazz Areito Bakosó Batá and yuka Batá-rumba Bembe Boogaloo Bolero Chachachá Changui Charanga Conga Columbia Comparsa Criolla Cuban hip hop Cuban jazz Cubatón Danzón Danzonete Dengue Descarga Filín Folk Guaguanco Guajira Guaracha Guarapachangueo Habanera Latin Jazz Mambo Mozambique Nueva trova Paca Pachanga Pilón Pregón Punto guajiro Reggae en Español Rock Rumba Salsa Son Son-batá Songo Son Montuno Timba Trova Tumba francesa UPA Yambú
Dominica
Chanté mas
Chanté mas (masquerade song) is a tradition from the music of Dominica, based in Carnival celebrations and performed by groups of masquerading partygoers. They use the call-and-response format, and lyrics are often light-hearted insulting, and discuss local scandals and rumors. Other genres include:
Bélé Calypso music Bouyon music Cadence-lypso Jing-Ping Kadans Mini-jazz Quadrille Zouk
soca music
Dominican Republic
Bachata Bolero Latin Rap Merengue Perico Ripiao Pambiche Palo music Tumba Zapateo Carabiné Merengue House Salsa Mangulina Son Trapchata Zarambo Dominican Rock Dominican Dembow
Dutch West Indies Bari is a festival, dance, drum and song type from the Dutch Antillean island of Bonaire. It is led by a single singer, who improvises. Lyrics often concern local figures and events of importance.
Quimbe is a topical song form from the Dutch Antillean St Maarten. It traditionally accompanies the ponum dance and drumming, but is now often performed without accompaniment. Lyrics include gossip, news and social criticism, and use clever puns and rhymes. Performance is often competitive in nature.
Tumba is a style of Curaçao music, strongly African in origin, despite the name's origin in a 17th-century Spanish dance. Traditional tumba is characterized by scandalous, gossiping and accusatory lyrics, but modern tumba often eschews such topics. It is well known abroad, and dates to the early 19th century. It is now a part of the Carnival Road March.
Other genres include:
Latin Rap Ritmo Kombiná Tambú Seú Wals Zumbi
Guadeloupe
Balakadri Biguine Bolero Bouyon gwada Cadence-lypso Gwo ka Hip hop Kadans Quadrille Mini-jazz Zouk
Guyana Shanto is a form of Guyanese music, related to both calypso and mento, and became a major part of early popular music through its use in Guyanese vaudeville shows; songs are topical and light-hearted, often accompanied by a guitar. Other genres include:
Chutney Chutney Soca Dancehall Calypso
Haiti
Compas / kompa Compas, short for compas direct, is the modern méringue (mereng in creole) that was popularized in the mid-1950s by the sax and guitar player Nemours Jean-Baptiste. His méringue soon became popular throughout the Antilles, especially in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Webert Sicot and Nemours Jean-Baptiste became the two leaders in the group. Sicot then left and formed a new group and an intense rivalry developed, though they remained good friends. To differentiate himself from Nemours, Sicot called his modern méringue, Cadence rampa.
In Creole, it is spelled as konpa dirèk or simply konpa. It is commonly spelled as it is pronounced as kompa.
Méringue Evolving in Haiti during the mid-1800s, the Haitian méringue (known as the mereng in creole) is regarded as the oldest surviving form of its kind performed today and is its national symbol. According to Jean Fouchard, mereng evolved from the fusion of slave music genres (such as the chica and calenda) with ballroom forms related to the French-Haitian contredanse (kontradans in creole). Mereng's name, he says, derives from the mouringue music of the Bara, a tribe of Madagascar. That few Malagasies came to the Americas casts doubt on this etymology, but it is significant because it emphasizes what Fouchard (and most Haitians) consider the African-derived nature of their music and national identity. Méringue has lost popularity to konpa.
Mizik rasin Mizik rasin is a musical movement that began in Haïti in 1987 when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haitian Vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with rock and roll. This style of modern music reaching back to the roots of Vodou tradition came to be called mizik rasin ("roots music") in Haitian Creole or musique racine in French. In context, the movement is often referred to simply as rasin or racine.
Starting in the late 1970s (with discontent surrounding the increasing opulence of the Duvalier dictatorship), youth from Port-au-Prince (and to a lesser extent Cap-Haïtien and other urban areas) began experimenting with new types of life. François Duvalier's appropriation of Vodou images as a terror technique, the increase in U.S. assembly and large-scale export agriculture, the popularity of disco, and Jean-Claude Duvalier's appreciation of konpa and chanson française disillusioned many youth and love.
To question the dictatorship's notion of "the Haitian nation" (and thus the dictatorship itself), several men began trying a new way of living, embodied in the Sanba Movement. They drew upon global trends in black power, Bob Marley, "Hippie"-dom, as well as prominently from rural life in Haiti. They dressed in the traditional blue denim (karoko) of peasants, eschewed the commercialized and processed life offered by global capitalism, and celebrated the values of communal living. Later, they adopted matted hair which resembled dreadlocks, but identified the style as something which existed in Haiti with the term cheve simbi, referring to water spirits.
In the 1990s, commercial success came to the musical genre that came to be known as mizik rasin, or "roots music". Musicians like Boukman Eksperyans, and Boukan Ginen, and to a lesser extent RAM, incorporated reggae, rock and funk rhythms into traditional forms and instrumentation, including rara, music from kanaval, or traditional spiritual music from the rural hamlets called lakous, like Lakou Souvnans, Lakou Badjo, Lakou Soukri, or Lakou Dereyal.