Brukdown is a

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of Belizean music. Its best-known performer and innovator, Wilfred Peters is regarded as a

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

an national icon. The word ''brukdown'' may come from ''broken down calypso'', referring to the similarities between brukdown and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

ian calypso music; the presence of large numbers of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

ns in Belize also led to an influence from

mento Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. Mento typically ...

music. Brukdown's main purpose is to tell the story of the Belizean Creole people. A typical Brukdown song may reflect the journey of the African slaves to the mahogany slave camps of Belize, but the genre has been sustained by its usefulness in spreading the word of historical and current events to the large illiterate population of Belize. As a result, Brukdown is frequently played at events with large gatherings– specifically around

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

time. The Brukdown singer is often the bearer of news, and the words of the composer are widely accepted as fact, despite the gossip-like nature of the genre.Olsen, D. A., & Sheehy, D. E. (1998). South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Garland Publishing, Inc. p. 678 https://archive.org/details/garlandencyclope0002unse/page/677/mode/1up Brukdown is a Kriol mixture of European

harmonies In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

( Accordion), African syncopated

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

s and

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

format and lyrical elements from the native peoples of the area. In its modern form, brukdown is rural folk music, associated especially with the logging towns of the Belizean interior. Traditional instruments include the banjo,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, drums, dingaling

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

, accordion and a donkey's

jaw The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...

bone played by running a stick up and down the teeth, and also a

grater A grater, also known as a shredder, is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods into fine pieces. Uses Food preparation Several types of graters feature different sizes of grating slots, and can therefore aid in the preparation of a variety of ...

. Brukdown remains a rural, rarely recorded genre. This genre of music has primarily African elements, while the only significant European element, is the Accordion.

References

Belizean music {{Music-genre-stub