Music of Samoa
Amusement for small groups and individuals in private was afforded by a jaw harp, a raft panpipe, and a nose-blown flute.
There are many uses for these wooden drums, including calling village meetings, in times of war and peace, songs/chants and dance, and signalling long distances in inter-island naval warfare.
Samoa also has recorded historical records of lesser known battles with neighbouring islands of Manono, Pukapuka, Tokelau, Tuamotu and Rarotonga, these battles may be classed as independent isolated skirmishes and inter-Island skirmishes between large familial klan groups.
The Talipalau skin drum was introduced to Samoa from east Polynesia in the 1800s, possibly as a result of early missionary society activities in both regions.
As the islands were Christianized late in the 19th century, ancient songs, accompanied by the percussive sound of sticks beating on a rolled mat, gave way to church choirs singing to the harmonies of pedaled organs.
The arrival of U.S. Marine Corps during World War II helped solidify the affinity for American popular music.
Modern pop and rock have a large audience in Samoa, as do several indigenous bands, which have abandoned most elements of Samoan traditional music, though there are folksy performers.
New Zealand continues to produce modern popular Samoan stars, such as Jamoa Jam and Pacific Soul.
Pop musicians include the Lole, Golden Ali'is, The Five Stars, and Jerome Gray, whose "We Are Samoa" remains an unofficial national anthem.
In the early 1980s, Footsoulijah, four Samoan performers from Wellington, credit the Blue City Strutters, who later became the hip-hop group Boo-Yah T.R.I.B.E, for spreading their lifelong interest in street dance and their eventual gravitation towards hiphop.
He learned the dance while staying with family in Carson, a community that drew large numbers of Samoans relocating from the islands in the 1950s-1970s.
As he discovered, popping and other 'street dance' forms thoroughly saturated the lives of Samoan youth growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Carson and neighboring Compton and Long Beach.
As Kosmo recalls, “All the poppers [5] got the girls,” highlighting another case of dance as an equalizing sexual power tool utilized by both sexes in global hip hop.
The Boo-Yaa TRIBE had a brief flirtation with the American mainstream, and the Samoan Sisters found more lasting fame in New Zealand.
Modern Samoan music shows influence from electrical instruments, jazz, and reggae, and even some house and techno styles.
A band with a similar career path and success was Kulcha, based in Sydney, which produced two albums but disbanded after a couple of years.
