Stylistic origins Bouyon, Soca music | Cultural origins Early 2000s, Dominica | |
Typical instruments Drum set, Drum machine, Horn section, two synthesizers, rhythmic guitar, bass guitar | ||
Bouyon soca is a fusion-genre of bouyon music originating from Dominica and soca music originating from the other Caribbean islands. Bouyon soca typically blends old bouyon music rhythms from the 90s' and soca music creating a unique sounding genre.
Contents
History
The nineties in Dominica have been dominated by a new musical form called bouyon music. The best-known band in the genre is Windward Caribbean Kulture (WCK), who originated the style in 1988 by experimenting with a fusion of Cadence-lypso and Jing ping. They began using native drum rhythms such as lapo kabwit and elements of the music of jing ping bands, as well as ragga-style vocals.
From a language perspective, Bouyon draws on English and Dominican Creole French with influences from the chanté mas tradition. Bouyon involves chanting rather than singing and is very much influenced by dancehall-reggae-rap language style, coming out of Jamaica. Bouyon-muffin and reketeng is an offshoot of this tendency. While bouyon lyrics comment on everyday life in the cultural sense, they can also contain explicit social commentary in the political sense.
Origin
Bouyon soca: sometimes referred to as Jump up soca, is a fusion-genre that typically blends old bouyon rhythms from the 1990s and soca music. Bouyon soca, is a term coined by non-Dominican producers and musicians who wish to attribute the current success of bouyon & soca fusion music to other islands. In its native Dominica, the concept of bouyon soca is pretty much unheard of. Bouyon is a very specific and original genre and is very much distinguishable from its "colleague" Soca.
While there may have been the occasional fusion, Bouyon has always maintained a very clear, recognisable and obviously different style from soca. This style of bouyon music was originated in Dominica, but is also very popular in Saint Lucia, Antigua, the Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Popularity
Bouyon soca is a fusion of bouyon and soca produced in Caribbean islands outside of Dominica that have an equally strong appreciation for both Soca and Bouyon music. Producers from St. Lucia have been experimenting with fusing bouyon and soca for many years, however when Saint Lucian artist Ricky T released a song "Pressure boom" in 2007 which blended the two genres this hit song helped the fusion to become more popular throughout the English speaking Caribbean.