Political Music From Artists in Trinidad and Puerto Rico
From WolfWikis
Music of Trinidad
The most socially political type of music in Trinidad is the calypso. The Caribbean influenced calypso was greatly influenced by several different colonial powers including the Spanish, the French and the British. The island of Trinidad was discovered by Columbus in 1498 but it took almost 100 years for it to be permently settled in 1592. Trinidad and its people were largely ignored for the next two centuries which led to a settlement of French settlers in the late 1700's. In 1797, the country changed hands from being a Spanish colony to a British colony without much of a fight after the British navy occupied Trinidad. The new British colony of Trinidad became mainly focused on the production of sugar which led to an increase and dependence of African slaves.
The calypso, a dance party music, originated from when the African slaves were first brought in from Western Africa to work in the sugar plantations. Political commentary were apart of the calypso from the beginning. The slaves would add lyrics that would “protest against slavery, make fun of their masters and comment on the news of the day.” The early protest songs are now catagorized into Kaiso, a Trinidadian slang of the genre. The early calypsos were led by a griots and were sung using a French-Creole dialect called Patois. At the time, the British slaveowners did not know that the lyrics were offensive to them and were largely ignored by the British.
Calypso rose again after the end of slavery in Trinidad and in the 1930’s calypso was used to describe the problems associated with the British and the independence that many Trinidadian's desired from them. Many songs were banned during this time and calypso became a way of underground communication. This movement helped lead to the actual independence from Britain in 1962. Another movement against the Americans took place in the 1950's as many Trinidadians felt that the Americans ignored them and left the country without helping them. The 1956 hit "Jean and Dinah" by The Mighty Sparrow sung about how many women that were forced into prostitution after the US closed their Naval Base at Chagaramas following the end of World War II. Now the political calypso is most closely associated with the Peoples National Movement (PNM) party, a party that helped Trinidad gain its independence from the British in 1962 that has since been spoiled with financial deception and other lies after the death of its founder, Eric Williams in 1981.
Clip of The Mighty Sparrow's song "Jean and Dinah".[[1]]
Mighty Sparrow's Jean and Dinah Lyrics
Well the girls in town feeling bad
No more Yankees in Trinidad
They going to close down the base for good
Them girls have to make out how they could
Brother is now they park up in town
In for a penny, and in for a pound
Believe me it's competition for so
Trouble in the town when the price drop low
Chorus:
So when you bounce up Jean and Dinah
Rosita and Clementina, round the corner posing
Bet your life is something they selling
And if you catch them
You can get em all for nothing
Don't make no row, the yankees gone, Sparrow take over now
Things bad is to hear them cry
Not a sailor in town, the night clubs dry
Only West Indians like me or you
Are able to get a drink or two
And as we have things back in control
Ah seeking revenge with me heart and soul
Brother when I spread the news around
Is to see how them cave men come into town
When the Yankee was in full swing
Just imagine how I was suffering
Mavis told me straight to me face
How she find I too fast and out of place
No, no, no, they would start to fret
Money or not poor Sparrow can't get
Because with the Yankees they have it cool
Calypsonians too hard to fool
It's the glamour boys again
We are going to rule Port of Spain
No more Yankees to spoil the fete
Dorothy have to take what she get
All of them who used to make style
While they taking two shillling with a smile
No more hotel to rest your head
By the sweat of thy brow thou shall eat bread
Modern calypso also has many political connections to them. Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignis) is one of the most prolific
female calypso singers of the modern era. On Feburary 14, 1999 she became the second women to be named the National Calypso Monarch with the song "Voices of the Ghetto". "Voices of the Ghetto" was a song that held up to its name. It was intended to be the voice of the lower class and show everyone the problems that the lower class was dealing with including violence and poverty. In 2003, Singing Sandra became the first women to be accomplish this feat twice with the song "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Singing Sandra's song "For Whom the Bell Tolls" as well as Heather McIntosh's song "10 Feet of Rope" both give chilling descriptions of the crime rate in Trinidad and how many people in the Government and other countries have turned a blind eye to it. Other political references in modern calypso come from artists such as Chalkdust, Black Stalin, Cro Cro and Duke.
Singing Sandra's Voices of the Ghetto
And often their tragic story brings a journalist glory.
no wonder, since the day they born
some call them rebels without a cause
these social victims of unjust laws
but yet they christen their heroes
renegade desperados
forever knocking on heavens doors
hear me, still the music shatters the silence
harmony to conquer the violence
Big men run when cops approach
Frightened for scraps with the cockroach
crying, crying, crying, voices of the ghetto.
Clip of Singing Sandra. [[2]]
Music of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico was also discovered by Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 and although it was discovered realitivity early it took until 1513 until slaves were introduced to the island. The slaves brought with them a music style called the Bomba. From the Bomba, a new type of music genre originated called the plena. The plena, the most politically active music in Puerto Rico is thought to have originated from the neighborhoods of Ponte, Puerto Rico. The plena is a mixture of musical interests from different nationalities including the Africans and Indians. This new type of music became a way for the slaves and lower class of Puerto Rico to express themselves through the lyrics of music. It became popular in the early part of the 20th century espicially in the sugar plantations of the southern coast of the island.
As time as progressed, the plena has been transformed into a type of folk music whose lyrics are left up to the imagination of the singers. This is the main reason that it has become a tool for political expression in Puerto Rico. The lyrics for novice songs constantly change based on what is affecting them at the time and what problems exist. The Los Pleneros de la 23 abajo have a popular song "Cimarron" in which they describe the origins of the plena.
Lyrics from "Cimarron"
The Black with his big drum
Fled to the mountains
The Indian with his little drum
And the jibaro his cuarto and guitar
The moon is going to burst
In its night of the plena
They brought together wisdom
The three races were formed
Jibaro, African, Taino
The indian that doesn't disappear
The maroon fled
He hid in the mountain
The maroon fled
He hid in the mountain
Another Popular artist, Luis Pales Matos uses the lyrics of "Plena del menealo" (Shake it Plena) in 1952 as a way to get his point across about the problems that would face Puerto Rico due to the influence of the Americans.
Lyrics from "Plena del menealo"
While you dance no power can change
you soul and spunk
Not Agapitos from down here,
Nor "misters" from up there
Swerve your stern, maletta,
steer toward eternity
that gyration of hips
really hurricane gusts,
and shake it, shake it,
This way and that, that way and this,
shake it, shake it.
Fanning the rage of Uncle Sam.
He is urging the Puerto Ricans to stand up and not be influenced by the American way of life by the Agapitos or Americanized Puerto Ricans or the "misters", the Americans themselves. He also gave a speech in which he told Puerto Ricans to stand up against the pressure of American influence and believe in the power of Puerto Rican culture. It said,
"we have to save this, what's ours, from the corrosive and dissolving effects of foreign pressure. We have to save it from Agapito, not the innocent Agapito, with his little shop in the solitude of the mountains, but from the other Agapito, Agapito, Jr., from citizen Agapito, the technologist, developer and planner, who has fallen on us like a plague of lobsters. That Agapito who doesn't believe in the essential values of the Puerto Rican man, flesh and bones of our intrinsic being..."
Tito Matos, the leader of the Puerto Rican group Viento de Agua described the effects of the plena as being el periodical cantado or "the newspaper of the people". Ismael Rivera is one of the most well known modern plena singers. His song "La Perla" talks about the town of La Perla and the situations that plague the town.
Clip of Ismael Rivera's "La Perla".[[3]]
Annotated Bibliography
[4]- This website talks about Calypso music in Trinidad and how it has evolved over time. It also discusses The Mighty Sparrows "Jean and Dinah" song.
[5]- This website talks about different calypso artists and has a lot of pictures of these artists.
[6]- The lyrics for the Mighty Sparrow song Jean and Dinah
[7]- The website that describes the music of Trinidad and Puerto Rico
[8]- This website talks about the calypso and how it has been influenced by African cultures.
[9]- This website talks about the plena and how it has changed over time.
[10]- This website gives details about the plena including "cimarron" and the "Plena del menealo" and standing against American influence.