Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European,

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n, and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves (see

Afro-Caribbean music Afro-Caribbean music is a broad term for music styles originating in the Caribbean from the African diaspora. These types of music usually have West African/Central African influence because of the presence and history of African people and their ...

), along with contributions from other communities (such as

Indo-Caribbean music Indo-Caribbean music is the musical traditions of the Indo-Caribbean people of the Caribbean music area. Indo-Caribbean music is most common in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname. Indo-Caribbean traditional music often reflects t ...

). Some of the styles to gain wide popularity outside the Caribbean include,

bachata Bachata may refer to: * Bachata (music), a genre of Latin American music **Traditional bachata, a subgenre of bachata music * Bachata (dance), a dance style from the Dominican Republic * Bachatón, a hybrid bachata/reggaeton music style * "Bachata ...

, merengue,

palo Palo may refer to: Places * Palo, Argentina, a village in Argentina * Palo, Estonia, village in Meremäe Parish, Võru County, Estonia * Palo, Huesca, municipality in the province of Huesca, Spain * Palo, Iowa, United States, a town located wit ...

mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...

denbo Denbo (also Dinbou, Danbou) now known as Ain al Dahab, ( ar, دنبو) is a Sunni Muslim settlement/village in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the ...

baithak gana {{unreferenced, date=June 2014 Baithak Gana is a form of music originating in Suriname by the Indian community. Baithak is a social gathering. It is a mix of Bhojpuri folk songs with other Caribbean influences. It is similar to Chutney music that ...

, bouyon,

cadence-lypso Cadence-lypso is a fusion of cadence rampa from Haiti and calypso from Trinidad and Tobago that has also spread to other English speaking countries of the Caribbean. Originated in the 1970s by the Dominican band Exile One on the island of Guade ...

, calypso, soca,

chutney A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce ...

chutney-soca In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, chutney soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating soca and calypso elements and English, Hindustani, and Hinglish lyrics, chutney music, with Western instruments such as the guitar, pi ...

compas Compas, also known as compas direct or compas direk (; Haitian Creole: ''konpa'', ''kompa'' or ''kompa dirèk''), is a modern méringue dance music genre of Haiti. The genre was popularized following the creation of Ensemble Aux Callebasses in ...

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The R ...

jing ping Jing Ping is a kind of folk music originated on the slave plantations of Dominica, also known colloquially as an accordion band. Dominican folk music, jing ping bands accompany a circle dance called the flirtation, as well as the Dominican quadr ...

parang Parang is a popular folk music originating from Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago that was brought to Trinidad and Tobago by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian, Spanish, Mestizo, Pardo, and African heritage, something whic ...

pichakaree Pichakaree (or pichakaaree) is an Indo-Trinidadian form of music, which originated in Trinidad and Tobago. It is named after the long syringe-like tubes used to spray abir during Phagwah celebrations. Description Pichakaree songs are generally ...

, punta, ragga, reggae, dembow,

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

, soca, and

zouk Zouk is a musical movement pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm and a loud horn section. The fast zouk béton of Martini ...

. Caribbean music is also related to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. C ...

n 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' 1492 landing, Spain claimed the entire region as its own. That didn't sit well with either the natives or Spain's European neighbors; within a few years, bloody battles raged across the islands of the Caribbean, fought by Spain, France, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands. All these battles (and diseases brought from Europe) decimated the native tribes, with entire cultures wiped out. 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 The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term W ...

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 Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranea ...

, 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 Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, English, Hindustani, Tamil,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

, Indian languages,

Amerindian languages Over a thousand indigenous languages are spoken by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. These languages cannot all be demonstrated to be related to each other and are classified into a hundred or so language families (including a large numbe ...

, French,

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** 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 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 ...

style has a long history of conflation with Trinidadian calypso. Elements of calypso have come to be used in

, and vice versa, while their origins lie in the Caribbean culture, each uniquely characterized by influences from the

Shango Shango (Yoruba language: Ṣàngó, also known as Changó or Xangô in Latin America; and as Jakuta or Badé) is an Orisha, a deity in Yoruba religion. Genealogically speaking, Shango is a royal ancestor of the Yoruba as he was the third Alaaf ...

and Shouters religions of Trinidad and the ''

Kumina Kumina is an Afro-Jamaican religion. Kumina has practices that include secular ceremonies, dance and music that developed from the beliefs and traditions brought to the island by Kongo enslaved people and indentured labourers, from the Congo r ...

'' 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 boasted lively calypso and

steelpan The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descriptio ...

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 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 ...

style. It has also been a means of folk communication, spreading news and political commentary across the island. Other genres include: *

Extempo Extempo (also extempo calypso) is a lyrically improvised form of calypso and is most notably practiced in Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. It consists of performers improvising in song or in rhythmic speech on a given theme before an audience ...

* Iron Band * Pan music * Soca

Bahamas

Goombay Goombay is a form of Bahamian music and a drum used to create it. The drum is a membranophone made with goat skin and played with the hands. The term Goombay has also symbolized an event in the Bahamas, for a summer festival with short parades ...

Junkanoo Junkanoo is a street parade with music, dance, and costumes with origin in many islands across the English speaking Caribbean every Boxing Day (26 December) and New Year's Day (1 January). These cultural parades are predominantly showcased in ...

* Rake-and-scrape * Bahamian Rhyming Spiritual

Barbados

* Folk * Tuk *

Spouge Spouge is a style of Barbadian popular music created by Jackie Opel in the 1960s. It is primarily a fusion of Jamaican ska with Trinidadian calypso, but is also influenced by a wide variety of musics from the British Isles and United States, inc ...

* Fling * Calypso jazz * Iron Band * Ragga Soca * Reggae * Soca * Bashment Soca

Belize

* Punta * Punta rock * Chumba * Fedu *

Brukdown Brukdown is a genre of Belizean music. Its best-known performer and innovator, Wilfred Peters is regarded as a Belizean national icon. The word ''brukdown'' may come from ''broken down calypso'', referring to the similarities between brukdown a ...

* Reggae *

Dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The R ...

Cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

Bachata Bachata may refer to: * Bachata (music), a genre of Latin American music **Traditional bachata, a subgenre of bachata music * Bachata (dance), a dance style from the Dominican Republic * Bachatón, a hybrid bachata/reggaeton music style * "Bachata ...

Colombia

* Berroche *

Bullerengue Bullerengue is a traditional musical genre and dance from the Caribbean Region of Colombia and the Darién Province in Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List ...

Champeta Champeta, also known as terapia, is a musical genre and dance that originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia in the early 1980s. It developed from an earlier style termed chalusonga, which originated in Palenque de San Basilio in the mid-1970 ...

* Chandé *

Chalupa A chalupa () is a specialty dish of south-central Mexico, including the states of Hidalgo, Puebla, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. Description Chalupas are made by pressing a thin layer of masa dough around the outside of a small mold, in the process c ...

* Cumbión *

Fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has a ...

* Garabato * Grito e' monte * Guacherna * Guaracha * Jalao * Lumbalú * Mapalé * Merecumbé * Millo * Parrandín * Paseaito * Perillero *

Porro The porro is a musical style and dance from the Caribbean region of Colombia. It is a Colombian cumbia rhythm that developed into its own subgenre. It was originally a folkloric expression from the Sinú River area that evolved into a ballro ...

Salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

* Son Faroto * Son de Negro * Son Sabanero * Son Palenquero * Tambora (Golpe de tambora) * Terapia *

Zafra Zafra () is a town situated in the Province of Badajoz (Extremadura, Spain), and the capital of the comarca of Zafra - Río Bodión. It has a population of 16,677, according to the 2011 census. Zafra is the hometown of Fray Ruy Lopez, autho ...

Vallenato Vallenato () or "Szlager" in Wayuu language (from the German "Schlager"), is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. ''Vallenato'' literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing t ...

y sus aires: ** Paseo **

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some curren ...

** Merengue ** Puya ** Tambora * Abambucao * Romanza vallenata * Piqueria *

Calipso CALIPSO is a joint NASA (USA) and CNES (France) environmental satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, which was launched atop a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. Its name stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Sat ...

* Foxtrot * Mazurka *

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 ...

* ModeUp *

* Pasillo Isleño * Polka * Praise Hymn *

Quadrille The quadrille is a dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. The quadrille consists of a chain of four to six '' contredanses''. Latterly the quadrille was frequently danced to a medley of opera melodie ...

* Reggae * Schottis * Socca *

Ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

Vals Vals is the word for waltz in many European languages. Vals or VALS may also refer to: * Peruvian waltz * Venezuelan waltz * Vals (dance), a dance related to Argentine tango * VALS, "Values And Lifestyles," a psychographic segmentation tool Place ...

isleño *

Zouk Zouk is a musical movement pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm and a loud horn section. The fast zouk béton of Martini ...

Cuba

Abwe An abwe or chekeré is a Cuban musical ensemble that uses gourds. It is a product of ''cabildos'', historical congregations of African slaves brought to Cuba. See also * music of Cuba * slavery * Caribbean music Caribbean music genres are ...

Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...

* Areito * Bakosó * Batá and yuka * Batá-rumba * Bembe *

Boogaloo Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage African Americans and Latinos ...

Bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

* Chachachá * Changui * Charanga * Conga * Columbia *

Comparsa A comparsa is a group of singers, musicians and dancers that take part in carnivals and other festivities in Spain and Latin America. Its precise meaning depends on the specific regional celebration. The most famous comparsas are those that part ...

Criolla Criolla is a genre of Cuban music which is closely related to the music of the Cuban Coros de Clave and a genre of Cuban popular music called Clave. The Clave became a very popular genre in the Cuban vernacular theater and was created by compose ...

Cuban hip hop Hip hop music arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centered on breakdancing. But by the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of the Special Period, yo ...

Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...

* Cubatón * Danzón * Danzonete *

Dengue Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...

Descarga A descarga (literally ''discharge'' in Spanish) is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it w ...

* Filín * Folk * Guaguanco * Guajira * Guaracha *

Guarapachangueo Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, ...

* Habanera *

Latin Jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...

Mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...

* Mozambique * Nueva trova * Paca *

Pachanga Pachanga is a genre of music which is described as a mixture of son montuno and merengue and has an accompanying signature style of dance. This type of music has a festive, lively style and is marked by jocular, mischievous lyrics. Pachanga ...

* Pilón *

Pregón Pregón, a Spanish word meaning ''announcement'' or ''street-seller's cry'', has a particular meaning in both Cuban music and Latin American music in general. It can be translated as ''a song based on a street-seller's cry'' or ''a street-seller' ...

Punto guajiro Punto guajiro or ''punto cubano'' – or simply ''punto'' – is a sung genre of Cuban music, a poetic art with music. It became popular in the western and central regions of Cuba in the 17th century, and consolidated as a genre in the 18th ...

* Reggae en Español *

Rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

Rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...

* Son-batá *

Songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...

Son Montuno Son montuno is a subgenre of son cubano developed by Arsenio Rodríguez in the 1940s. Although ''son montuno'' ("mountain sound") had previously referred to the ''sones'' played in the mountains of eastern Cuba, Arsenio repurposed the term to den ...

Timba Timba is a Cuban genre of music based on Cuban ''son'' with '' salsa'', American Funk/R&B and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music. Timba rhythm sections differ from their salsa counterparts, because timba emphasizes the bass dr ...

Trova ''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by si ...

Tumba francesa Tumba francesa is a secular Afro-Cuban genre of dance, song, and drumming that emerged in Oriente, Cuba. It was introduced by slaves from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (which would later become the nation of Haiti) whose owners resettled in ...

* UPA *

Yambú Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, n ...

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 A bélé is a folk dance and music from Martinique, St. Lucia, Dominica, Haiti, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad and Tobago. It may be the oldest Creole dance of the creole French West Indian Islands, and it strongly reflects influences from ...

Calypso music Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to Wes ...

Bouyon music Bouyon (pronunciation: ''boo-yon'') is a genre of Dominican music that originated in Dominica in the late 1980s mainly with the group "WCK", with names such as Derek "Rah" Peters on vocals, Cornell Phillips keys and vocals among others, while ba ...

Cadence-lypso Cadence-lypso is a fusion of cadence rampa from Haiti and calypso from Trinidad and Tobago that has also spread to other English speaking countries of the Caribbean. Originated in the 1970s by the Dominican band Exile One on the island of Guade ...

* Jing-Ping *

Kadans Cadence rampa ( ht, kadans ranpa, ), or simply kadans, is a dance music and modern méringue popularized in the Caribbean by the virtuoso Haitian sax player Webert Sicot in the early 1960s. Cadence rampa was one of the sources of cadence-lypso. G ...

Mini-jazz Mini-jazz ( ht, mini-djaz) is a reduced méringue- compas band format of the mid-1960s characterized by the rock band formula of two guitars, one bass, and drum-conga-cowbell; some use an alto sax or a full horn section, while others use a ke ...

soca music

Dominican Republic

* Gaga *

* Latin Rap * Merengue * Perico Ripiao *

Pambiche Pambiche is a Dominican music genre and dance form derived from merengue típico, the traditional style of merengue. It has a slower tempo than standard merengue and its tambora rhythm is based on the cinquillo. This style of merengue was orig ...

* Palo music * Dembow * Sarandunga *

Yuca ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

* Tumba *

Zapateo Zapateo ( en, shoe tapping) is a dance form rooted in the Spanish flamenco and before that, in the ancient cultural influences imported in to Europe by the Gypsies. Zapateo, which later produced the more famous Malambos dance, arrived in South Am ...

* Carabiné * Merengue House *

* Mangulina *

* Salve * Trapchata * Zarambo * Dominican Rock *

Dutch West Indies

''Bari'' is a festival, dance, drum and song type from the Dutch Antillean island of

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC isla ...

. 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 Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...

. 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 The Carnival Road March is the musical composition played most often at the "judging points" along the parade route during a Caribbean Carnival. Originating as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the term has been applied to other Caribbean ...

. Other genres include: * Latin Rap * Ritmo Kombiná * Tambú * Seú * Wals * Zumbi

Guadeloupe

Balakadri Balakadri (called balkadri or kadri) is a traditional quadrille music that was performed for balls on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. History Guadeloupean balakadri persisted into the 20th century and, despite disruption after World War II, m ...

* Biguine vidé * Bouyon gwada *

Gwo ka Gwo ka is a French creole term for big drum. Alongside ''Gwotanbou'', simply ''Ka'' or ''Banboula'' (archaic), it refers to both a family of hand drums and the music played with them, which is a major part of Guadeloupean folk music. Moreov ...

* Hip hop *

Guyana

Shanto Shanto is a form of Guyanese music, related to both calypso and mento. It 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. The word "sha ...

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 A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce ...

Chutney Soca In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, chutney soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating soca and calypso elements and English, Hindustani, and Hinglish lyrics, chutney music, with Western instruments such as the guitar, p ...

* 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 The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

, 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 Cadence rampa ( ht, kadans ranpa, ), or simply kadans, is a dance music and modern méringue popularized in the Caribbean by the virtuoso Haitian sax player Webert Sicot in the early 1960s. Cadence rampa was one of the sources of cadence-lyps ...

. 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 Kontradans or the French-Haitian Contredanse, is creolized dance music formed in the 18th century in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) that evolved from the English ''contra dance'', or (''country dance''), which eventually spread thr ...

'' 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 are a type of Japanese drinking gathering held by university students in a casual drinking establishment called an izakaya, and are more relaxed than the traditional ''nomikai''. It is often suggested that this word originally came from german ...

Mizik rasin

Mizik rasin is a musical movement that began in

Haïti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

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 Duvalier is a French and Haitian surname, and may refer to: * François Duvalier (1907–1971), nicknamed "Papa Doc", President of Haiti 1957–71 * Jean-Claude Duvalier Jean-Claude Duvalier (; 3 July 19514 October 2014), nicknamed "Baby Doc" ( h ...

dictatorship), youth from

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

(and to a lesser extent

Cap-Haïtien Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previously ...

and other urban areas) began experimenting with new types of life.

François Duvalier François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on ...

's appropriation of Vodou images as a terror technique, the increase in U.S. assembly and large-scale export agriculture, the popularity of

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pi ...

, and Jean-Claude Duvalier's appreciation of

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 Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements ...

, "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 Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid ...

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.

Twoubadou

Twoubadou is another form of folk music played by peripatetic troubadours playing some combination of acoustic, guitar,

beat box Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

instruments singing

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s of Haitian, French or

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...

origin. It is in some ways similar to

Son Cubano Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are th ...

from Cuba as a result of Haitian migrant laborers who went to work on Cuban

sugar plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

at the turn of the century. Musicians perform at the Port-au-Prince International Airport and also at bars and restaurants in

Pétion-Ville Pétion-Ville ( ht, Petyonvil) is a commune and a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the hills east and separate from the city itself on the northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. Founded in 1831 by president Jean-Pierre Boyer, it was named a ...

Other

(''kadans'') * Coumbite (''kombite'') * Haitian Gospel *

Haitian hip hop Rap Kreyòl, started in Haiti in the early ‘80s by the Late Great Master Dji, who witnessed how American Hip Hip gave birth to French Hip Hip while living in France. Hence, he moved back to Haiti and started the Hip Hop movement that took Haiti ...

(''rap kreyòl'') * Haitian rock (''rock kreyòl'') *

Kontradans Kontradans or the French-Haitian Contredanse, is creolized dance music formed in the 18th century in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) that evolved from the English ''contra dance'', or (''country dance''), which eventually spread thr ...

Rabòday Rabòday is a rhythm of traditional dance music played to the drum and is arranged to electronic music. Etymology

Rara Rara is a form of festival music that originated in Haiti that is used for street processions, typically during Easter Week. The music centers on a set of cylindrical bamboo trumpets called vaksin, but also features drums, maracas, güiras or g� ...

* Rara tech * Vodou drumming *

Honduras

The music of Honduras is varied. Punta is the main "ritmo" of Honduras, with similar sounds such as Caribbean salsa, merengue, reggae, reggaeton, And kompa all widely heard especially in the North, to Mexican rancheras heard in the interior rural part of the country. Honduras' capital

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

is an important center for modern Honduran music, and is home to the College for Fine Arts. Folk music is played with guitar,

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

and other instruments. Popular folk songs include ''La ceiba'' and ''Candú''. Other genres include: *

Reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

Garifuna music Garifuna music is an ethnic music and dance with African, Arawak, and Kalinago elements, originating with the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people from Central America and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. In 2001, Garifuna music, dance, and language ...

* Matamuerte *

Classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

* Merengue * Hip Hop *

Pop Latino Latin pop (in Spanish and in Portuguese: Pop latino) is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. Originating in Spanish-speaking musicians, Latin p ...

* Spanish rock

Jamaica

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 Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

'' and ''

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

''.

is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean ''

'' and '' calypso'' with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat.

is a form of Jamaican folk music that uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Sexual innuendos are also common. Mento was strongly influenced by calypso, the musical traditions of the ''

'' religion and

Cuban music The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European (especially Spanish) music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban mu ...

. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as ''calypso'', ''kalypso'' and ''mento calypso''; mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques. Other genres include: *

* Dub *

Lovers rock Lovers' rock is a style of reggae music noted for its romantic sound and content. While love songs had been an important part of reggae since the late 1960s, the style was given a greater focus and a name in London in the mid-1970s.Larkin, Col ...

Nyabinghi Nyabinghi or Nyabingi is a prominent figure in the history of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, where religions or 'possession cults' formed around her. Probably via a 1930s article, the term "Nyabinghi" was introduced to Jamaica. There, it was adopted ...

* Ragga *

Rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

Roots reggae Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of Africans and those in the African Diaspora, including the spiritual side of Rastafari, black liberation, revolution and the honoring of God, called J ...

* Soca music

Martinique

* Bèlè (''Bel Air'') *

Biguine Biguine ( , ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, bigin) is a rhythm-centric style of music that originated from Saint Pierre, Martinique in the 19th century. It fuses Bèlè and 19th-century French ballroom dance steps with African rhythms. History ...

Chouval bwa Chouval bwa is a kind of folk music originated on the slave plantations of Martinique. There are two versions, traditional and modern. Chouval bwa has been popularized by artists such as Claude Germany, Tumpak, Dede Saint-Prix, and Pakatak. ...

* Hip hop * Jump up *

* Mazouk (Mazurka)

Puerto Rico

Aguinaldo A thirteenth salary, or end-of-year bonus, is an extra payment given to employees at the end of December. Although the amount of the payment depends on a number of factors, it usually matches an employee's monthly salary and can be paid in o ...

* Balada *

* Bomba *

Danza Danza is a musical genre that originated in Ponce, a city in southern Puerto Rico. It is a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century ballroom dance genre slightly similar to the waltz. Both the danza and its cousin the contradanza are sequence dan ...

Décima A décima is a ten-line stanza of poetry. The most popular form is called décima espinela after Vicente Espinel (1550–1624), a Spanish writer, poet, and musician from the Siglo de Oro who used it extensively throughout his compositions. The d� ...

* Guaracha *

Latin hip hop Latin hip hop (also known as Latin rap) is hip hop music that is recorded by artists in the United States of Hispanic and Latino descent, along with Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean, North America, Central America, South America, an ...

* Latin house *

Latin trap Latin trap is a subgenre of trap music that originated in Puerto Rico. A direct descendant of southern hip hop, and influenced by reggaeton, it gained popularity after 2007, and has since spread throughout Latin America. ''The trap'' is slang f ...

Plena Plena is a genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico. Origins The plena genre originated in Barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico, around 1900. It was influenced by the bomba style of music. Originally, sung texts were not associated wit ...

* Reggae en Español *

Salsa romántica Salsa Romántica is a soft form of salsa music that emerged between the mid-1980s and early 1990s in New York City, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic . It has been the most commercially successful form of salsa in the last 20 years, despite crit ...

* Spanish dancehall *

Seis The seis is a type of Puerto Rican Jíbaro dance music closely associated with the décima. It originated in the latter half of the 17th century in the southern part of Spain. The seis is influenced by Spanish, African, and Taino cultures. The ...

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Big Drum Big Drum is a genre, a musical instrument, and traditional African religion from the Windward Islands. It is a kind of Caribbean music, associated mostly closely with the music of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Music of Guadeloupe, Carriacou in ...

* Calypso * Soca *

Steelpan The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descriptio ...

* Stringband music

Saint Lucia

'' Jwé'' is a kind of rural music from Saint Lucia, performed informally at wakes, beach parties, full moon gatherings and other events, including ''débòt'' dances. Jwé uses raunchy lyrics and innuendos to show off verbal skills, and to express political and comedic commentaries on current events and well-known individuals. One well-known technique that has entered Lucian culture is ''lang dévivé'', which is when the singer says the opposite of his true meaning. Other genres include: * Calypso *

* Kont * Soca *

* Dub * Reggae

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

is a style found in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and elsewhere in the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean Sea North ...

, especially

Carriacou Carriacou is an island of the Grenadine Islands. It is a dependency of Grenada, and is located in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island Grenada and the north coast of South America. The name is derived from the Carib la ...

. It is accompanied by drums traditionally made from tree trunks, though rum kegs are now more common. Satirical and political lyrics are common, performed by a female singer called a ''

chantwell Kaiso is folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music. As early as the 1780s, the word kaiso was used to describe a French creole song and, in Trinidad, kaiso seems to have been perfected by the chantwells (singers, mostly female) durin ...

'' and accompanied by colorfully costumed dancers. Big Drum is performed at celebrations like weddings and the launchings of new boats.

Chutney-soca In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, chutney soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating soca and calypso elements and English, Hindustani, and Hinglish lyrics, chutney music, with Western instruments such as the guitar, pi ...

is another genre.

Suriname

Kaseko Kaseko is a musical genre from Suriname. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles derived from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The genre is rhythmically complex, with percussion instruments including skratji (a very large bass drum) ...

is a music genre that originated in Suriname. The term ''Kaseko'' is probably derived from the French expression ''casser le corps (break the body)'', which was used during slavery to indicate a very swift dance. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles. It is rhythmically complex, with percussion instruments including

skratji This is a list of membranophones used in the Caribbean music area, including the islands of the Caribbean Sea, as well as the musics of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Belize, Garifuna music, and Bermuda. It only includes membranophones that ar ...

(a very large bass drum). Songs are typically

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 ...

. Other genres include: *

Baithak Gana {{unreferenced, date=June 2014 Baithak Gana is a form of music originating in Suriname by the Indian community. Baithak is a social gathering. It is a mix of Bhojpuri folk songs with other Caribbean influences. It is similar to Chutney music that ...

* Indo-Caribbean * Aleke * Kawina

Trinidad and Tobago

Calypso

Calypso is a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

music, which traditionally uses a slow tempo to accompany vocalist-composers, or ''

calypsonian A calypsonian,Definition of CALYPSO
picong'', a style of lyricism that teases people in a light-hearted way. Calypso is competitively performed in

calypso tent Calypso tents are venues in which calypsonians perform during the Carnival season. They usually are cinema halls, community centers, or other indoor buildings which have seating and stage arrangements to host the entertainers, guests and patrons; ...

s at Carnival. Calypso uses rhythms derived from West Africa, with cut time, and features dance as an important component. Calypso's roots were frequently ascribed to

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

, Jamaica,

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

or the Virgin Islands. Calypso can be traced back to at least 1859, when a visiting ornithologist in Trinidad ascribed calypso's origins in British ballads. and While calypso has a diverse heritage, calypso became a distinct genre when it developed in Trinidad. The word ''caliso'' refers to ''topical songs'' in the dialect of Saint Lucia, and may be linguistically related to the word ''calypso''.

Cariso

Cariso is a kind of Trinidadian folk music, and an important ancestor of

calypso music Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to Wes ...

. It is lyrically topical, and frequently sarcastic or mocking in the '' picong'' tradition, and is sung primarily in French creole by singers called ''

s''. ''Cariso'' may come from ''carieto'', a Carib word meaning ''joyous song'', and can also be used synonymously with ''careso''.

Chutney

is a form indigenous to the southern

, popular in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica and Suriname. It derives elements from traditional Indian music and popular

Soca music.

Soca

Soca is a style of Caribbean music originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Soca originally combined the melodic lilting sound of calypso with insistent

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...

percussion (which is often electronic in recent music), and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal—as demonstrated in Shorty's classic compositions "Ïndrani" and "Shanti Om". During the 80's, the influence of

as popularized by the French Antillean band

Kassav Kassav' is a French Caribbean band formed in Guadeloupe in 1979. The core members of the band are Jacob Desvarieux, Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Patrick St. Eloi, Jean-Claude Naimro, Claude Vamur, and Georges Décimus (who left t ...

' had a major impact on the development of modern soca music.

Other

* Afrosoca * Chut-kai-pang *

* Caribbean pop * Gospelypso * Indo-Caribbean *

Kaiso Kaiso is a type of music popular in Trinidad and Tobago, and other countries, especially of the Caribbean, such as Grenada, Belize, Barbados, St. Lucia and Dominica, which originated in West Africa particularly among the Efik and Ibibio peop ...

* Pan music *

Parang Parang is a popular folk music originating from Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago that was brought to Trinidad and Tobago by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian, Spanish, Mestizo, Pardo, and African heritage, something whic ...

Pichakaree Pichakaree (or pichakaaree) is an Indo-Trinidadian form of music, which originated in Trinidad and Tobago. It is named after the long syringe-like tubes used to spray abir during Phagwah celebrations. Description Pichakaree songs are generally ...

Rapso Rapso is a form of Trinidadian music that grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s. Black Power and unions grew in the 1970s, and rapso grew along with them. The first recording was ''Blow Away'' by Lancelot Layne in 1970. Six years late ...

* Yahdees

Venezuela

* Musica llanera * Merengue * Gaita * Tambores

Virgin Islands

Careso

*''Careso'' is a Virgin Islander song form, which is now entirely performed for special holiday and appreciation or education events, by folkloric ensembles. It is similar to '' quelbe'' in some ways, but has more sustained syllables, a more African melodic style and an all female, call and response format with lyrics that function as news and gossip communicator, also commemorating and celebrating historical events.

Other

* Scratch band *

Bamboula A bamboula is a type of drum made from a rum barrel with skin stretched over one end. It is also a dance accompanied by music from these drums. History Originating in Africa, the bamboula form appears in a Haitian song in 1757 and bamboula beca ...

* Masquerade music

Quelbe

Quelbe is a form of Virgin Islander folk music that originated on

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

, now most commonly performed by groups called ''scratch bands''. Traditionally, however, quelbe was performed informally by solo singers at festivals and other celebrations. Hidden meanings and sexual innuendos were common, and lyrics focused on political events like

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict so ...

Yucatán, Mexico

* Chachachá * Conga *

* Danzón * Guaracha *

Marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

* Troval *

Cumbia music by country#Mexico

References

External links

* The Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection http://latinpop.fiu.edu/ *Brill, Mark. Music of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2nd Edition, 2018. Taylor & Francis *Manuel, Peter. ''Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae (''Temple University Press, 1995). ISBN 1566393388 {{Music of the Caribbean