Calypso and Soca
project duration : second of two semesters
When my teachers told me at the end of my junior year that I would have to choose a topic for my Senior Seminar project I immediately knew what I wanted to focus on. I saw Seminar as the idea opportunity for me to advertise and inform people on one of the most popular types of Caribbean music -- Calypso and Soca. But more than hoping to spread the knowledge of this kind of music, I was focusing on this mainly because of the love and pride I have for this music and my culture.
The island of Trinidad & Tobago is the birthplace of calypso and soca music but has been so influential throughout the entire Caribbean that the other islands have adopted calypso into their own culture as well. As a child growing up in Trinidad, I was immediately exposed to calypso music since this was the music that would emanate from my father's music speakers on a daily basis. It was also the music that would accompany many of the local advertisements that I heard on the radio and saw on the TV. Most importantly however, was that calypso music played, and continues to play, a major role in our annual carnival celebrations as many calypso competitions would be televised during this time. These competitions would have every Trinidadian who did not attend, glued to their television sets. I grew up hearing, feeling, even "seeing" calypso everywhere around me and I know this is what was mainly responsible for it being major part of my bloodstream today.
Calypso music, although very much still alive, can be seen as th emusic of my father's generation, while its offspring -- soca -- has become the voice of my generation. Soca is a very hightempo, party music whereas calypso is more of a laid back, conscious type of music. Calypso is the father while soca is the son. Soca music however, because of its festive rhythms and lyrics, has taken over as the music for the carnival celebrations and has become so popular over the years that it has had more of an iimpact outside of Trinidad and the Caribbean. It is also the music that the youths generally aspire to sing.
It is my goal to achieve a few things at the completion of my year-long seminar program. I hope to design and craft a quite intimate package which contains :
A book about calypso and soca music
Two CDs / cover designs -- one for calypso, one for soca.
A poster advertising a calypso, soca concert
A flyer for this concert
An invitation for this concert
A dialect card of Trinidadian slang words and meanings
date : September 04
Corinne Back
Eric Bailey
Dave Blank
Brian Cannon
Nathan Hayward
Paul Kinchla
Curtis Levesque
Meghan O'Connor
Nicole Pivirotto
Brian Savignano
Matthew Sexton
Luke Shover
Ron Theriault
completed projects (fall semester)
Rene Dolabaille
Ben Jenness
Hedwiga Kulig
Joseph Lambert
Chung-heng Liu
Nicole Pivirotto