The Soul of Calypso

Soca is another style of music typically played/performed during the Notting Hill Carnival. It is known as “the soul of calypso,” also a genre of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 1970s. It further developed into a multitude of styles in the 80s and onward, continuously evolving and transforming with various cultural influences, a lot of which come form cadence, funk, and soul.

The “godfather” of soca was a Trinidadian man named Garfield Blackman, who was famously known as Lord Shorty with his first hit in 1963 called “Cloak and Dagger.” He began writing and performing songs in the genre of calypso, but then began to experiment with different sounds, blending calypso with elements of Indo-Caribbean music. It took nearly a decade for soca music to become a popular genre. Shorty was the first to give soca music a definition, and it was primarily with his song “Indrani” in 1973 and his album “Endless Vibration” in 1975.

In “Indrani,” Shorty demonstrates the style of soca with the fusion of calypso, cadence, and Indian musical instruments, mainly the dholak, tabla, and dhantal. And soca has since grown to incorporate all kinds of musical elements and has been experimented with in Bollywood films, Bhangra, new Punjabi pop, and American disco all as well as being a popular tradition of Notting Hill Carnival music.

"Indrani" - Lord Shorty

"Ducking" - Fadda Fox (soca music today)