Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae - Softcover

Manuel, Peter; Bilby, Kenneth; Largey, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1899365079 ISBN 13: 9781899365074

Publisher: Temple University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This is an exploration of the region's music - its forms and innovations, musicians, festivals, and dance halls, its fans - and traces its African, Asian and European roots. This book is oriented toward a few distinct yet overlapping sets of readers. One group contains the music lover who has taken a fancy to some kind of Caribbean music and would like to know more about the background of that style and about the region's music as a whole. Another set includes the student of Caribbean society or of pan-American society in general, who seeks an introduction to this most dynamic aspect of the hemisphere's culture.

About this title

From the Publisher

A fascinating wide-ranging survey of Carribean music forms

From the Back Cover

Music is the most popular and dynamic aspect of Caribbean expressive culture. As Caribbean music has evolved from its traditional roots to its contemporary forms, it has developed a rich variety of styles. From the well-known genres—salsa, merengue, reggae, calypso, and bachata—to more localized forms like chutney and kaseko, this wide-ranging book surveys Caribbean music's prodigious diversity and colorful history.

Enhanced with numerous illustrations and musical examples, Caribbean Currents is an up-to-date overview of the region's music, covering Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, Suriname, and smaller islands like Martinique and Guadeloupe. The authors provide an overview of Caribbean music—its forms and innovations, its musicians, its festivals and dance halls, and its fans—and trace its primarily African and European roots. They explore the modern genres' relationship to issues of race, regional diversity, gender, and socio-political conflicts.

Given the international popularity of such Caribbean genres as reggae and salsa, this book is a critical resource for understanding musical styles that have become a dynamic part of world culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1899365079
• ISBN 13: 9781899365074
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 288