Calypso Music

Calypso
Stylistic origins	West African Kaiso and canboulay music
Cultural origins	Early 19th Century, Trinidad and Tobago
Typical instruments	Trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, Spanish guitar, bass guitar, congas, bongos, steelpan, violin, bamboo sticks, glass bottle/spoon, claves, maracas, cuatro, concertina, jawbone
Derivative forms	Soca and Palm-wine music
Subgenres
Oratorical calypso • Extempo • Shouter calypso • Benna • Mento (complete list)
Fusion genres
Chutney • Chut-kai-pang • Chutney Soca • Rapso • Soca • Gospelypso • Cadence-lypso • Ska • spouge • Reggaeton • Reggae
Other topics
Carnival • Calypsonian • Calypso-like genres • Calypso tent • Picong • Shango • Obeah • Calypso de El Callao

Music of Trinidad and Tobago
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Calypso Cariso Chut-kai-pang Chutney Chutney Soca Extempo Groovy soca Kaiso Parang Parang soca Pichakaree Rapso Soca Steelpan Steelband soca
Media and performance
Music media	Music television Synergy TV Tempo TV
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Forged from the Love of Liberty
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Martinique Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Music television

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-20th century and spread to the rest of Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century.

Calypso drew upon African and French influences, and became the voice of the people. It was characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals, which was most often sung in a French creole and led by a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot (originally a similar traveling musician in West Africa) became known as a chantuelle and eventually, calypsonian. As English replaced "patois" (Antillean creole) as the dominant language, calypso migrated into English, and in so doing it attracted more attention from the government. It allowed the masses to challenge the doings of the unelected Governor and Legislative Council, and the elected town councils of Port of Spain and San Fernando. Calypso continued to play an important role in political expression, and also served to document the history of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

Calypso in the Caribbean includes a range of genres, including: the Benna genre of Antiguan and Barbudan music; Mento, a style of Jamaican folk music that greatly influenced ska and reggae; Ska, the precursor to rocksteady and reggae; Spouge, a style of Barbadian popular music; Dominica Cadence-lypso, which mixed calypso with the cadence of Haiti; and soca music, a style of Kaiso/calypso, with influences from cadence-lypso, soul, and funk.

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Wikipedia