Bahamian Music

Bahamian Music

The radio crackles, the DJ puts the needle to the vinyl, or the band begins to play. The upbeat pulse of Bahamian music circulates through the room. Suddenly you find yourself moving in place, and then across the floor.

Caribbean music seems to create an undeniably contagious urge to dance. Perhaps it's the strong underlying rhythm common to most island music of this region, including the immensely popular calypso, originally from Trinidad, and reggae, which spread to nearby islands from Jamaica. Both have roots in the drum beats of Africa, which were brought by slaves and spiked with French, British, Spanish, and Portuguese flavors from shipmasters and plantation owners. In the Bahamas, though, the dominant sound is homegrown soca.

The fundamental component of soca, calypso, and reggae is the 4/4 beat, the base upon which the melody is built. Whereas calypso and reggae emphasize the downbeat, soca music accentuates all four beats evenly -- creating tunes that are catchy and easy to dance to. A good Bahamian band can play all three rhythms, often combining them to create a hybrid effect. It's not uncommon to hear a cover of a Bob Marley reggae song in soca style, or a soca-inspired rendition of Harry Belafonte's well-known calypso tune "Maryann."

Soca music has many faces. In some cases its closest relative is calypso, other times it's reggae, dub, ragga, or even hip-hop. A single keyboard -- or a full symphony orchestra -- can create soca. The formula for most contemporary soca songs is a simple melodic line played on a keyboard or an electric guitar, aggressively rapped lyrics, and that characteristic driving rhythm, played on either a beat machine or a drum.

The drums that are so crucial to Bahamian and Caribbean music come in a myriad of forms. Popular with Caribbean bands are the steel pan, originally constructed out of 55-gallon oil drums, and the conga, often associated with Latin music but played throughout the world. The traditional Bahamian drum is a handmade goatskin-covered instrument. It's the mainstay of another well-known Bahamian sound, rake and scrape music.

Rake and scrape is typically made using recycled objects. An ordinary saw held in a musician's lap, then bent and scraped, becomes an instrument. Plastic juice bottles are filled with pigeon peas, painted in bright colors, and turned into maracas. Add a goatskin drum, and you have all you need for a rake and scrape ensemble, although many bands now add a guitar, saxophone, or both.

There's a Rake 'N' Scrape Festival each June on Cat Island, in which dozens of bands from all over the Caribbean perform. Some people view the festival as an extremely important event, given that rake and scrape is often seen as a dying art. To counter this trend, many of the old-time players teach at local schools to keep the tradition alive for the next generation of Bahamians.