Zouk

Zouk
Stylistic origins	Kadans or compas, cadence-lypso, bélé, biguine, gwo ka, and other Caribbean-African rhythms
Cultural origins	Early 1980s, French Antilles (Guadeloupe and Martinique, Dominica, Haiti
Typical instruments	Traditional: rhythm section: bélé, makè and boula drums, tibwa, chacha, brass section, two synthesizers, guitar, bass guitar Contemporary: zouk-love use synthesizers and drum machines especially
Fusion genres
Bouyon - Groovy soca - Gumbe - Kuduro - Soukous
Regional scenes
French West Indies, Dominica, Haiti, West Africa, Brazil, France

Music of Martinique
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Bélé Biguine Chouval bwa Hip hop Jump up Kadans Mini-jazz Quadrille Zouk
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La Marseillaise
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic French Guiana Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Music of Guadeloupe
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Balakadri Biguine vidé Bouyon gwada Cadence-lypso Gwo ka Hip hop Kadans Mini-jazz Zouk
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La MarseillaiseChanté a lendependens
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic French Guiana Grenada Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Martinique Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Music of Dominica
General topics
Related articles
Genres
Bélé Bouyon Bouyon soca Cadence-lypso Chanté mas Jing ping Kadans Mini-jazz Quadrille Zouk
Media and performance
Music festivals	Carnival World Creole Music Festival
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Cuba Curaçao Dominican Republic French Guiana Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Martinique Montserrat Panama Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

Zouk is a fast jump-up carnival beat originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, popularized by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the 1980s. Very rapid in tempo, the style lost ground in the 1980s due to the strong presence of kadans or compas, the main music of the French Antilles. Today, zouk is the French Antilles compas, also called zouk-love.

The Creole word zouke, sekwe, or zouke, etc. from the French verb secouer meaning "shake intensely and repeatedly" was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The word zouk has, over time, come to mean "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French.

Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the meringue-kadans or compas influence from the French islands. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully, creating new sound in both their fast carnival beat and compas. The Antilleans were all over with zouk but as other bands from the Caribbean and Africa added the MIDI technology to their music people got used to it. Because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980s and Antilleans would continue to play and dance meringue-cadence or compas. After all, French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the style. However, the problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled compas as zouk in order to remain on the map (keeping in mind Compas was created in 1950 by Haitians); creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Bresil, Portugal and other places. Kassav', the originator of the zouk béton, is a compas music band that has taken compas to many places, and is the only band that continues to include zouk béton in its repertoire, though to a lesser extent.

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Wikipedia