In my news-blog report on the the Junior Calypso and Junior Soca Monarch competition in Kingstown on Tuesday, I wrote, in part, “… calypso bards spoke to social issues and soca don and divas showed that they are good students of their seniors…. The soca category of the show was dominated by the “jump and wave” and gyrating that has become characteristic of the soca art form here.”
Anyone who attended Tuesday’s show could easily see that the future of calypso, as an art form in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is in dire straits.
In fact, when master of ceremonies Val Mattias asked at the end of the show if the audience liked the calypso segment, the young Vincentians chorused in a decisive, loud and resounding “No!”
Soca music moves Vincy youth in a way that most calypsoes do not.
The response was quite the opposite when he asked about the soca segment. The audience was virtually salivating in anticipation for the performances of senior soca artistes Fireman Hooper, Jamesy P, and Luta.
People are free to choose which of the art forms they prefer. I have absolutely no qualms with that.
My contention is that there is no need to have provocatively-dressed young ladies, some hardly 16 years old, dancing the most tantalizing and gyrating moves in a show for our youth. Also, we cannot have guest artistes sending mixed messages, especially after the young calypsonians labored so hard (and against the odds) to highlight the dangers of substance abuse and promiscuity.
“Kenton, we are breeding a generation of revelers,” one of my media colleagues commented to me during the soca segment of the show, noting the crowd of young and impressionable minds.
While the themes and contents of most of the youngsters’ soca songs were wholesome and appropriate, in terms of their performance, it seems that the youngsters and those who had helped them to prepare their presentations had copied wholesale many of the things that they see on display during the senior competition.
One artiste went as far as challenging a young lady to come on stage so that he could put her wineing (sp?) skills to the test.
The CDC cut this performance as they young artiste prepared to do his "daggering"-like moves with a second member of the audience.
The young lady, who had been living in North America for the past almost four years, probably thought she was in for traditional challenge.
Only that the young man jumped onto her, grabbed her by the thighs and lifted her precariously into air in a manner that resembles the “daggering” that has become popular in Jamaican clubs and has claimed the life of at least one young woman there.
The organizers of the show wisely ended the performance by having the band stop playing and one journalist commented to the artiste that he should leave such things for the national soca monarch show.
Soca seniors Luta, Jamesy P and Fireman Hooper also crossed the line during their guest appearance.
The artistes sang of “looking some nookie tonight” and their love for rum before catching themselves and extemporaneously modifying their songs to tell the audience to concentrate on their studies, postpone sex, avoid underage drinking and drink responsible when they are old enough to do so legally — closing the stable door after the horse had bolted but damage control nonetheless.
Gone are the days when double entendre was used to weave sexual connotations in soca and calypso. Today, sexual themes in our music is so ubiquitous and so thinly veiled that the youngest, least socially aware of our children needs no help in deciphering them.
It seems that in every facet of our society women are increasing being valued based solely on their worth as sex objects. One female artiste in her song this year celebrates “All de big thing gal” while a male in his piece encourage the woman with whom he has an extra-marital affair to treat her husband as good as she used to so that he will not suspect her infidelity.
I wonder why the family in SVG is under so much threat.
Artiste like Fireman Hooper can be used to influence Vincentian youth into positivity.
After witnessing Fireman Hooper’s performance at last year’s competition, there is no doubt that the artiste is well loved by and has great influence on Vincentian youth. He moves them in a way that no other artiste can. Jamesy P and Luta and every other artiste in SVG also have their following.
The artistes who are invited to perform at the CDC shows must modify the lyrics of their popular songs to teach our youth lessons that will be to their benefit. Why not go further and write a song, individually, or as a group, specifically for the youth, in much the same way that Vincentian artistes did in the fights against HIV/AIDS.
And, lest anyone doubt the potential positive impact of artiste on their listeners, can anyone remember the attitude that many of our young men adopted when Jamaican artiste Beenie Man sang about not wanting girls with “bag pon back” (students)?
