Caribbean dance music

Caribbean Dance Music (CDM)
Stylistic origins	House Dancehall Reggae Soca
Cultural origins	Early to mid 1980s, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Typical instruments	Sampler Synthesizer Drum Machine
Subgenres
Ragga Jungle Basshall Traphall Future Dancehall Future Soca
Regional scenes
Trinidad and Tobago
Other topics
Jungle Tropical House EDM Moombahton

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Caribbean dance music (CDM) is a hybrid music genre that fuses electronic dance music (EDM) or what is referred to as electronic music in Europe with Caribbean music such as dancehall, reggae and soca. The fusion originated in the 1980’s following the emergence of house music, however, the term Caribbean Dance Music wasn’t coined until 2014 by Trinidadian music enthusiast Karrilee Fifi.

Characteristics

Identifying characteristics of Caribbean Dance Music is strong vocal execution over beats with drums that take on typical Caribbean music patterns and syncopations. Songs are usually created between 100bpm - 160bpm.

History

Notable pioneers in the genre emerged in the early 2000s. However, in 1988, Trinidadian musicians Carl & Carol Jacobs fused electro with Calypso on their song "Santimanitay" and in 1995, Machel Montano fused house and soca music on his track "Come Dig It".

South Rakkas Crew have been putting out what they have called "electro dancehall" since 2003.

Although numerous tracks between the late 80s - early 2000s could be classified as CDM, it wasn’t until 2007 that the genre saw its initial mainstream success. French DJ/Producer, Bob Sinclar, produced an album titled Soundz of Freedom featuring Trinidad artist, Fireball and Grenadian artist Dollarman. The album was featured on several European charts.

CDM officially made its mark in the global music industry through Caribbean-American electronic trio, Major Lazer. The group’s first CDM hit “Pon De Floor” was released in 2009 which set the trend for a slew of billboard charting hits including “Lean On” “Cold Water” “Run Up” and more.

The infiltration of Major Lazer’s CDM hits into the electronic music festival scene in 2013 spurred a movement of mainstream electronic DJs infusing their tracks with Caribbean music elements.

By 2014 upcoming DJs and producers were fueling this hybrid genre through movements like the CDM Generation, Basshall movement and Flex up crew, a collective of future dancehall DJs and producers

Subgenres

Ragga Jungle

Ragga Jungle is a reggae influenced sub genre of Jungle electronic music that developed in England in the early 1990s as part of UK rave scenes. It often features an MC who recites dancehall-style lyrics over rapid breakbeats (often 150 to 200 bpm).

Traphall

Traphall, pioneered by Chuckie in 2016 is a sub genre of CDM that combines elements of reggae, dancehall, EDM, Trap and Hip Hop.

Future Dancehall

Future Dancehall is a Dancehall influenced sub genre of Caribbean Dance Music that is a fusion of Electronic Dance Music, Dancehall, Reggae and Techno.

Notable Artists

Notable CDM artists include:

• Major Lazer
• Walshy Fire
• Jillionaire
• Bad Royale
• Henry Fong
• Chuckie
• Ape Drums
• Devolve
• Kybba
• Richie Loop
• Leftside
• Braveboy (Mark Hardy)
• Banx n Ranx
• Childsplay
• DJ Snake
• Johnny Roxx
• Jus Now
• Noise Cans
• Sean Paul
• Ultimate Rejects
• Razorshop

See also

• Tropical House
• Moombahton
• Jungle
• Electronic Dance Music

References

This article "Caribbean dance music" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Caribbean dance music. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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