Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the Soul of Calypso, 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 USA. Soca is an offshoot of Kaiso/Calypso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks.
Soca has evolved since the 1980s primarily through musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries, not only from its birthplace Trinidad and Tobago but also from Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, the US and British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Guyana and Belize. There have also been significant productions from artists in Venezuela, Canada, Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.
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.
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, and two Creole lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron.
ellievsbear
