Music Sound

Soca is a dance music which is a mix of Trinidad's calypso and Indian music and rhythms, especially chutney music—it is not, as is often said, a fusion of soul and calypso. It combines the melodic lilting sound of calypso with an insistent percussion.

The acknowledged father of soca was Lord Shorty (né Garfield Blackman), whose 1963 recording of "Cloak and Dagger" started the trend. Shorty experimented with calypso by adding Indian rhythm instruments like the dhantal, tabla and dholak. His "Ïndrani" was the first mainstream hit from the genre, and was followed by a watershed album called Endless Vibrations, which spawned numerous imitators. Lord Shorty initially referred to his musical discovery as “solka”, meaning the true “soul of calypso”. “Solka” was changed to “Soca” by a musical journalist.

Like calypso, soca was used for both social commentary and risqué humor, though the initial wave of soca acts eschewed the former. Lord Shorty was disillusioned with the genre by the 1980s because soca was being used to "celebrate the female bottom, rather than uplift the spirits of the people". Soon after, Shorty moved to the Piparo forest, converted to the Rastafari movement and changed his name to Ras Shorty I. There, he created a fusion of reggae and gospel music called jamoo in the late 1980s.

Some of the greatest soca artists of all time are Shadow, The Mighty Sparrow, the late Lord Kitchener, and Superblue (previously Blue Boy), and more recently artists such as Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Shurwayne Winchester, Denise Belfon and Maximus Dan.

Some soca songs which have become hits:

"Hot Hot Hot" - Buster Pointdexter (originally recorded by Arrow)
"Follow the leader" - Soca Boys (originally recorded by Nigel and Marvin Lewis)
"Who Let the Dogs Out" - Baha Men (originally recorded by Anslem Douglas)
"Sweet Soca Music" - Sugar Daddy
"Turn Me On" - Kevin Lyttle
"Tempted to Touch" - Rupee (Soca artist)
"We Not Givin' Up" - Machel Montano and Xtatik

Soca music has evolved like all other music over the years, with Calypsonians experimenting with other rhythms, some examples are:

1. Rapso : trinidad dialect rap with smooth calypso melody and bold lyric
2. Chutney music: A fusion of traditional Indian percussion and style of singing and Calypso; Tempo usually around 154 BPM
3. Ragga soca: A fusion of Jamaican Dancehall style Reggae and Soca

Soca influences can be found in many other styles, e.g. hip hop and Reggaeton.