Is Soca Ready?
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10:09 AM
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I sat listening to the radio and from the speakers came the sound of Bunji Garlin’s voice singing his now very popular and Award winning refrain, “We Ready, We Ready, We Ready…….” And I wondered to myself… Are we? Many believed that we are. Soca has finally received an international award and is destined to make its mark on the world of international music.
There is no doubt that 2013 was fantastic both for Bunji Garlin and the genre of music called Soca. For the very first time in its history, the genre was recognised with not one but two international awards, namely the”MTV Iggy” and the “Soul Train Award”. Bunji was not the first to receive the MTV Iggy. Farmer Nappy copped MTV Iggy’s Artist of the week in March 2012. Bunji ‘s Soul Train Award was one of greater significance as he placed ahead of more internationally established artistes for the award.
So I ask again, “are we ready to take the international stage or will we continue ever so often to be a ’flash in the pan’?” Many say that the music is not ready because the quality of the productions fails to meet International standards. Others say the genre is festival music, only relevantto our festival and
therefore lacks international appeal. Others again say too many topics addressed in the songs are of local content and as a result, there is no connection to those outside of our diaspora.
When we look at our fellow Caribbean island of Jamaica and the gains made by their music genre-
So if we are to follow the logic above, it would be insufficient to try and market Soca as just a music genre. To get international acceptance we would need to package it along with happiness, freedom, sun, pan and mas. We would need to appeal to the senses of people all over the world, showing them that the music is related to sun, fun and freedom.
If we are able to do this then Soca may begin to have international appeal, and when Bunji’s refrain of “WeReady, We Ready, We Ready……..”, or Kerwin’s “ Press ah Button”, or Kerwin's“Gyul how yuh bad so….gyul how yuh rude so” blasts anywhere in the world, it will also conjure up images of the sun, the
fun the freedom and the joire de vivre that goes along with the music. Then maybe the consistent internationnal appeal which we seek would be forthcoming.
So, as we continue to wait for that breakthrough, can we identify the critical success factors? I think we must put in place, the infrastructure to assist in the development of a music industry. What does this entail? Firstly, we need to make available training and certification in the various disciplines. For instance, record engineering, music publicists; R & R personnel; music management and entertainmen
Lawyers.
This will aid in the development of better standards, and better quality recordings. The artistes will be better prepared for the 'Big Break' when it comes, mindful that preparation is half the battle won.
Actually, we were presented with such an opportunity when Robert Amar was forced to part with his dream,The Caribbean Sound Basin ( at the time one of the top recording facilities in the world).
If the existing government had placed more value on the creative arts, they would have made that facility part of the University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT). Then the type of training of which I spoke earlier, would have been available for citizens involved in the music recording industry.
Sadly we missed that opportunity and the building was gutted of all its recording equipment and converted into office space.
We look forward to the day when our vision for a top class recording industry will finally materialise.
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