Exploring the Performance Culture of West Indian Soca Music

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The musical style of this piece is West Indian soca (sokah) music. The performance is by Black Stalin and the title is “Black man Feeling to Party.” The social setting of the performance is a concert setting. This particular function of this musical style is for entertainment, parties, and dance. The ensemble set up for the performance is arranged with the band behind the performer, (as known as the artist) who is in the front and center of the stage. The four backup singers are also behind the artist; however, they are not directly behind him they are located to the left back side of the stage. The audience is facing the performer and the band. The bands instruments used for this performance constant of a piano, two electric guitars, a drum set, two trumpets, one trombone, and two saxophones.
The performer and the band are on a stage that is elevated higher than the ground the audience (fans) is on. For this performance, and the majority of others performances in this musical style there are no seats in the audience. This allows a different type of interaction between the fans and the artist. The musical style of this piece consists of calls (from the artist) and responses (from the audience). The artist engages the audience by calling out actions to them. For …show more content…

Brooklyn was one location that many artists came to call their second home for creating and distributing their work. As per profess Ray Allen’s article, The Brooklyn Soca Connection: Frankie McIntosh and Straker Records, North American and British record labels produced and distributed soca music. These labels saw benefits for the labels (not the artists) to do these productions and distributions. In producing music through major corporate label, the authenity of the music can be altered. As in the case of soca music it did, however it did not receive the same attention at Reggae and similar music

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