Music of Trinidad and Tobago

The Spanish also gave many incentives to lure settlers to the island, including exemption from taxes for 10 years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula.

The open resistance of Afro-Creole revelers, of course, redoubled concerns among government officials over this potential threat to public order and led to an alternative strategy—the banning of drumming—in 1883.

Carnival festivities split into two kinds of venues during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, occupying both the street and more performance-oriented calypso tents.

Calypsonians were considered potentially dangerous by elites and government officials because they commanded large followings and could sway public opinion with their songs.

The Afro-Creole middle class, moreover, working toward upward social mobility and thus concerned with aligning itself with the elite, also attempted to distance itself from Carnival and calypso.

Beginning in 1845, major influxes of indentured immigrants from India and other parts of the world dramatically changed the ethnic composition of the islands.

Bamboo-Tamboo evolved out of the ban which European colonizers imposed on drumming: dry, hollow bamboo poles were cut to varying lengths to produce different pitches when thumped theground.

They showed off by doing ceremonious bows, making grand entrances, sweeping movements, graceful and gentle gliding steps which imitated the perceived elegance of the French.

Tamboo-bamboo evolved out of the ban which European colonizers imposed on drumming: dry, hollow bamboo poles were cut to varying lengths to produce different pitches when thumped against the ground.

Kaiso music has its origins in West African call and response songs (particularly in present-day Nigeria) which were brought over by the slaves who (in the early history of the art form) used them to sing about their masters and ways to gain their freedom.

Kaiso is still used today as a synonym for calypso in Trinidad and some other islands, often by traditionalists, and is also used as a cry of encouragement for a performer, similar to bravo or olé.

As calypso developed, the role of the griot (originally a similar traveling musician in West Africa) became known as a chantuelle, and eventually, calypsonian.

Modern calypso, however, began in the 19th century, a fusion of disparate elements ranging from the masquerade song lavway, French Creole belair and the stick fighting chantwell.

Calypso's early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including canboulay drumming and the music masquerade processions.

Early chantwells such as Hannibal, Norman Le Blanc, Mighty Panther and Boadicea made names for themselves by criticizing the colonial government.

Soon, stars such as Lord Invader and Roaring Lion grew in stature (the 1930s Golden Age of Calypso) and became more closely aligned with the independence movement.

Some songs were banned or censored by the British colonial government, and calypso became a method of underground communication and spreading anti-British information.

These early popular performers led the way for calypso's mainstreaming with artists including Lord Kitchener, Harry Belafonte and Mighty Sparrow.

Mighty Sparrow's first hit was Jean and Dinah, celebrating the departure of American military forces from Trinidad; the song launched a new generation of politically active calypso music, which soon became associated with the People's National Movement.

Old-time calypsonians and purists, however, preferred rapso's continuation of the lyrical ambidexterity that helped make calypso the world-famous, innovative art form it has become; many criticized soca's perceived watering-down of calypso, including veteran calypsonians such as Chalkdust, who asked: "Are we to put water in the brandy, singing just two or three words [that mainstream audiences] can understand and dance to?"

The 1990s saw a more politically and spiritually-conscious form of rapso, which has been infused with soul and reggae music, as well as native J'ouvert, an early introduction to Carnival which consists of percussionists using makeshift materials to hammer out a beat.

[9] The traditional steel-pan was hammered out by hand, but with the instrument gaining popularity and worldwide demand, manufacturers have experimented with more efficient methods including Spinforming, Flowforming, Aquaforming and Marforming.

The singers of parang visit the homes of family and friends and sing Christmas-themed songs in Spanish accompanied by instruments, usually the guitar, Venezuelan cuatro, maracas (known as chac-chacs on the islands), mandolin, bandolin, violin, bandola and sometimes the cello.

Since then, chutney has grown from a woman's genre into a leading player of the pop music scene with both men and women participating in nationwide competitions.

The largest of such shows are the annual Pop Music Awards held at the Tsunami nightclub in Chaguaramas and the Samaan Tree Rock Festival in Aranguez.

Choral groups, steelband and traditional western orchestras, smaller ensembles, music schools and programmes, and others stage shows[20] at venues around the country, particularly at the Queen's Hall in Port of Spain; the University of the West Indies (St. Augustine Campus); Central Bank Auditorium; Simon Bolivar auditorium; churches and cathedrals; and at the new National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), which was opened in 2009 but closed down in 2014 for renovations.

Bharatiya Vidya Sansthaan, under the guidance of Prof. Hari Shankara Adesh, was the first institution to provide courses in the authentic classical artform of India.

Prof. Rajesh Kelkar (from historic Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda), went to remote villages of Trinidad and taught classical and devotional music with missionary zeal.

The government has identified the music industry as one of three pioneering sectors that are pivotal to long-term economic sustainability because of dropping prices of oil and gas, Trinidad and Tobago's main export.

MusicTT’s mandate is "to stimulate and facilitate the business development and export activity of the music industry in Trinidad and Tobago to generate national wealth.