Ah war Soca…Vincy Soca!

Fri, Jul 30, 2010

Editor: The quality of Vincy soca has deteriorated considerably within the last decade. The apparent shortage of creativity reflected in the lyrics and melody in many of today’s songs is cause for concern. This is mainly due to the overused “Wave yo hand syndrome” employed by entertainers to hype up crowds.{{more}} It is pertinent to note that Burning Flames, the most successful regional soca band, has never released a wave-hand song!

The new Vincy soca formula is simple: a catchy phrase (punch-line) + 2 slang verses= song. In this formula, quality is sacrificed for quantity! A far cry from standards set by trail blazers like Becket, Astericks, Winston Soso, Scorcher and Touch. As a result, most of today’s soca entertainers feed their hungry fans an unhealthy diet of substandard music. Fortunately, Bomani, Skarpyon, Luta and Jamesy P are few exceptions who continue to produce music of the highest order.

I firmly believe that the advent of the soca monarch competition has contributed significantly to the demise of Vincy Soca. Consequently, most local soca is short-lived as artistes’ primary purpose is to produce music for competition. It’s no surprise that other regional artistes continue to penetrate the international market as Vincy soca remains buried in “Carnival City” Victoria Park. Acts like Rupee, Patrice Roberts and Lil Rick are featured internationally, while seasoned artistes like Maddzart, Fireman Hooper and Icon hover over a stagnant Vincentian arena.

If Vincy soca is to embellish our expression as a people, then our entertainers are woefully short of the mark. Unlike the Bajan soca, the Trini brand, which is laden with the “wave- yo-hand syndrome” has significantly depreciated in quality in recent years. Yet we have diverted from our rich Vincy brand of soca and have adopted that of Trinidad. Meanwhile, the Barbadian brand, once the laughing stock of its Vincentian counterparts, continues to improve. This is quite evident in most of this year’s Crop Over releases.

Additionally, the new breed of Vincentian soca artistes places too much emphasis on glorifying smut and vulgarity in songs. This obsessive practice does little to promote values in this youthful nation. A case in point is the highly suggestive 2010 road march hit “The King Road”. I was amused by the rendition of a two-year old who lustily sang “Jump up in the f…king road”. Isn’t it unfair to punish this innocent child for the wrongdoing of an irresponsible society? It says a lot about our mores and values when songs like these get by as hits.

Come on, soca bards, your fans deserve wholesome music of the highest quality both in content and structure. There is the need for you to fulfil your moral obligation to them and to start produce music that promotes SVG worldwide. You should endeavour to emulate the exploits of your predecessors who blazed the trail, placing SVG on the pinnacle of the soca world. Stop short changing your fans with thrash music that does little to improve the art form.

Collin CA$H Haywood