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Don't stop the soca
Written by : Martin Jay
Location : London
Posted : Dec 13, 2007 : 2:09:56 PM |
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As 2007 draws to a close, it is a natural instinct to reflect and analyse the past twelve months and wonder whether the music that we love and cherish has progressed - or perhaps digressed - especially here in the UK. What were the ups, what were the downs, and how we can move forward?
The major negative is the very poor sales of the authentic CDs, to the point where we have a virtually nonexistent market here in the UK. Very few songs are available in a small number of shops, which means that we are gradually killing the artform. It is all well and good having plenty of fêtes about the place, but without the money going back to the artists and producers how can we really expect them to carry on year after year, churning out music at their own cost.
The positives have been a large emergence of young soca DJs, playing both on the radio and in the fêtes. This can only be a positive step in encouraging young people to get involved in the soca scene, and we have a few young artists that are working hard and coming up with some nice work. Chardanai is a name that I think that you should look out for, as well as Junior Don and many others who are trying to make a contribution.
Soca music has also continued to have representation in the urban music world, which is important. Kevin Lyttle (Turn Me On), Rupee (Tempted to Touch) and Jamesy P (Nookie) have all made songs that, before 2007, had made it onto the airwaves and on the urban TV networks. This year, we saw two giants of our artform join that list in the shape of Alison Hinds (Roll It Gal) and Machel Montano (One More Time), both of whom have had extensive airplay and rotation here in the UK.
Hopefully in 2008 we can take all the positives of this year and use them to eradicate the negatives, and take soca music up another level. Maybe there needs to be a major change in the way that we buy music; I do know that there are some online music stores emerging that hopefully will help us to create and maintain an affluent economy, so that artists and producers can reap back some of the money that they have invested for our musical pleasure. |
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