1. Caribbean Folk Music Sounds, Commonalities, Spaces and Identity

2. Cultural Narratives Caribbean Folk music is seen to have been produced by a meeting of cultures. Creolisation is the dominant narrative where the majority of Caribbean folk music is seen to be from African and European Cultural practices. Creolisation equation says different European music culture + different African music culture = Different Caribbean genre 3. Musical CharacteristicsCaribbean MusicAfrican European 4. Africans musical concepts (retentions) call and response with repetitive lyric an emphasis on drum and bass poly-rhythm a close connection of MUSIC with specific DANCE and movements in a group participation context. emphasis of ORAL and AURAL qualities distinct Vocal QUALITY and TEXTURE instruments 5. Important Western European Musical Concepts INSTRUMENTATION HARMONIC Structures MELODIC Structures and TONALITIES FORM LANGUAGE 6. Spaces Curacao Tamb Barbados Tuk Trinidad Lavway/CalendaCuba Rumba Carriacou Big Drum Jamaica JonkanooPuerto Rico Bomba y Plena 7. Barbadian Folk Song 8. Folk Music and Nationalism In emerging Caribbean and Latin America nations of the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies, local elites seized upon hybridized African-European musical genres and proclaimed them "national" musics. The national forms were an exercise in the symbolics of nationhood and a means of coming to terms with the multiracial character of the New World societies (Averill 32-33). Categorization of music, dance practices, and, by indexation, people as folkloric was deemed useful and necessary for creating a new national order, for mobilizing the masses, for integrating the rural indigenous peoples and paradoxically for unification and stratification. The concept and category of folklore became a crucial politico cultural term, encompassing rural indigenous practices and peoples throughout Mexico. (Randall 52) 9. Hegemony and Homogenisation National processes of homogenization may work on heterogeneity ...If marginal persons and groups insist on their ownership of certain cultural elements in the national mix, these are devalued and their owners defined as "not 'true' members of the ideologically defined nation." (Wade 8-9) Though political independence has not led to economic or cultural autonomy, it has forced the Creole elite to turn to the black masses as a political constituency rather than sharply differentiating themselves as they did previously. (Safa 120) 10. Works Cited Averill, Gage. A day for the hunter, a day for the prey : popular music and power in Haiti. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1997. Lewin, Olive. Rock it come over : the folk music of Jamaica. Kingston, Jamaica, University of the West Indies Press, 2000. Marshall, Trevor G, Peggy L. McGeary, and Grace J. I. Thompson. Folk Songs of Barbados. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 1981. Print. Randall, Annie J. Music, Power, and Politics: [...]. New York [u.a.: Routledge, 2005. Safa, Helen. I. "Popular culture, national identity, and race in the Caribbean." New West Indian Guide, 1997. Wade, Peter. Music, race & nation : msica tropical in Colombia. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000. 11. More Info www.stefanwalcott.com Pinterest Stefan Walcott YouTube, SlideShare and Vimeo Stefan Walcott