16 Facts About 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.

Soca music 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 US.

Soca music began its development in the early 1970s and grew in popularity throughout that decade.

Soca music started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre.

Soca music 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.

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Shorty stated in a number of interviews that the idea for the new Soca music beat originated with the fusion of Calypso with East Indian rhythms that he used in his 1972 hit "Indrani".

Main source of Soca is Calypso developed in Trinidad 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.

Soca music started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre.

The style of Soca music was made more popular to the Caribbean region by the likes of the producer Dada and artists ASA from Dominica with collaborations from Trinidadian and St Vincentian artists such as Skinny Fabulous, Bunji Garlin, Iwer George and Machel Montano.

Soca music has evolved like most other music genres over the years, with calypsonians, soca artists, musicians and producers experimenting with fusing Soca with other Caribbean rhythms.

The term Chutney that is being used to refer to Indo-Caribbean music did not come into popular use until after 1987 when many Indo-Trinis started to abbreviate the term "Chutney soca" to "Chutney" in reference to those Chutney soca songs that were sung only in the Hindi language.

Outside of Dominica the Bouyon Soca music fusion style is popular in islands like Antigua, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe and Martinique and is a natural evolution from Zouk and Soca music fusions that were popular there during the 1980s.

Soca music is based on a strong rhythmic section that is often recorded using synthesized drum sounds and then sequenced using computers; however, for live shows, the live human drummer emulates the recorded version, often using electronic drums to trigger drum samples.

The drum and percussion are often loud in this genre of Soca music and are sometimes the only instruments to back up the vocal.

Soca music is indeed defined by its loud, fast percussive beats.

Soca music videos are played on several television channels including CaribVision, Centric, Synergy TV, and Tempo TV.