Soca Music

Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the "Soul of Calypso", which has influences of African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelt "sokah" by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper when reporting on the new music it was erroneously spelt "soca"; Lord Shorty confirmed the error but chose to leave it that way to avoid confusion. It is a genre of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s and developed into a range of styles during the 1980s and after. Soca was initially developed by Lord Shorty in an effort to revive traditional calypso, the popularity of which had been flagging amongst younger generations in Trinidad due to the rise in popularity of reggae from Jamaica and soul and funk from the United States. Soca is an offshoot of Calypso/Kaiso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks.

Soca has evolved since the 1980s primarily through musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries, so not only from its birthplace Trinidad and Tobago but also from Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, the US and British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Belize. There have also been significant productions from artists in Venezuela, Canada, Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

History

Soca began its development in the early 1970s and grew in popularity throughout that decade. Soca's development as a musical genre included its fusion with Calypso, Chutney, Reggae, Zouk, Latin, Cadence and traditional West African rhythms.

A sound project started in 1970 at KH Studios in Trinidad to find a way to record the complex Calypso rhythm in a new multi-track era.

Musicians involved in the initiative were Robin Imamshah (guitar, project lead), Angus Nunez (bass), Errol Wise (drums), Vonrick Maynard (drums), Clarence James (percussion), Carl Henderson (keyboards) and David Boothman (strings). Some of the early songs recorded in 1972 at the KH Studios which benefited from this project were "Indrani" by Lord Shorty and "Calypso Zest" by Sensational Roots. Later came the Soca hits "Endless Vibrations" and "Sweet Music" by Lord Shorty, recorded in 1974 and 1975 respectively, and "Second Fiddle" by Ella Andall, recorded in 1975. In 1976, "Savage" by Maestro and "Trinidad Boogie" by Last Supper (composed by Robin Imamshah) also benefited from the improving multi-track recording technology at KH Studios.

Soca continues to incorporate contemporary music styles and trends. Bollywood films, Bhangra, the new Punjabi pop and Disco music in the United States have also experimented with Soca.

Lord Shorty

The "father" of Soca was a Trinidadian named Garfield Blackman, who rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1964 hit "Cloak and Dagger" and who adopted the name "Ras Shorty I" in the early 1980s. He started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre. A prolific musician, composer and innovator, Shorty experimented with fusing Calypso and elements of Indo-Caribbean music after 1965 before debuting "the Soul of Calypso", Soca music, in the early 1970s.

Shorty was the first to define his music as "Soca" during 1975 when his hit song "Endless Vibrations" caused musical waves on radio stations and at parties and clubs - not just in his native Trinidad and Tobago, but also in cities like New York, Toronto and London. Soca was originally spelled Sokah, which stood for the "Soul of Calypso" with the "kah" part being taken from the first letter in the Sanskrit alphabet, representing the power of movement as well as the East Indian rhythmic influence that helped to inspire the new beat. Shorty stated in a number of interviews that the idea for the new Soca beat originated with the fusion of Calypso with East Indian rhythms that he used in his 1972 hit "Indrani". Soca solidified its position as the popular new beat adopted by most Trinidadian Calypso musicians by the time Shorty recorded his crossover hit "Endless Vibrations" in 1974.

In 1975, Shorty recorded an album entitled "Love in the Caribbean" that contained a number of crossover Soca tracks. During the subsequent promotional tour, Shorty stopped at the isle of Dominica and saw the top band there, Exile One, perform at the Fort Young Hotel. Shorty was inspired to compose and record a Soca and Cadence-lypso fusion track titled "E Pete" or "Ou Petit", which was the first in that particular Soca style. Shorty consulted on the Creole lyrics he used in the chorus of his "E Pete" song with Dominica's 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo in the 17th century from the West African Kaiso and canboulay music brought by enslaved Africans and Immigrants from the French Antilles to Trinidad to work on sugar plantations during the Cedula of Population of 1783 . The Africans brought to toil on sugar plantations, were stripped of all connections to their homeland and family and not allowed to talk to each other. They used calypso to mock the slave masters and to communicate with each other. Many early calypsos were sung in French Creole by an individual called a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot became known as a ''chantuelle'' and eventually, ''calypsonian