IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

Do you guys agree that to elavate soca music is through videos? I believe this because people who are not west indian are oblivious towards our culture and the way we express ourselves through music. Take for example Sean Pauls first video! Now you seeing americans doing the new dances in reggae in parties, some even dressing in ice, gold, green headbands, and girls wearing bob marley gear looking islandy! I strongly believe this is what promoters, artist, tv stations (synergy, C.I.N. etc), directors should take much more seriously! Who agrees or disagrees?:)

i agress 100%

I know there are alot of b@llsh%t soca videos that look like theey were shot with a buy one get one free radio shake camera, but here are some nice quality videos that are good enough to bring to television music stations.


1.Destra/Machel- Its carnival

2.3canal- Over the mountain

3.3suns- lay your loving

4.Kevin Lyttle- Down to the last drop

5."Soca music what the whole world need"- forgot the artist!

& how i hate it

but to what u were saying, videos are the key to everything
The only thing is can u handle songs being played out?
Look at Kevin Lyttle, his song and video gettin run, and now all sort of haters poppin up

You breds peolpe keep saying in order for soca to be mainstream the only option is to alter our sound into rnb like Kevin Lyttle. But I dont feel we have to alter nothing. People are just unaware of our culture and need to see how we enjoy ourselves through the artform!

I guess its the same thing with people living in the islands wearing durags, boys wit dem pants dragging, and "bling bling". Cultural diffusion! I dont know where exactly you at but ALOT of people west indianS BUT MOSTLY Americans wearing Bob Marley gear and red green and yellow headbands and outfits. Imagin if soca could do something like this/ start a trend. That would be a plus!

soca could go mainstream on its own we dont need know other genre or style to make it go main stream we need to buss out our soca style to the world show them how the west indies does do it in parties and let the world join in so who ever say that for soca to go mainstream the option is to alter it in r&b they full of fack they aint know music or creativity or imagination they jus thinkin one straight thing if soca aint make it mainstream i dont care because i singing it for my love of it not to kill it and please other people for the different style soca gone always be soca zouk gone always be zouk calypso gone always be calypso because nobody cannot change those styles imagine how soca gone sound with a r&b twist rupee songs is like a zouk style but r&b lyrics join in to give it a little twist i give rupee appluase to that but his songs sound like zouk style not r&b u know wha r&b stands for Rythm and Blues soca is soca it cannot changes even if u try a little r&b soca have a more uptempo and u know we west indian people love it fast style to imagine soca mix with r&b with a 150 beats per minutes or tempo racing u gone say that sound shitty so as i draw my point soca cannot mix with r&b i would only say soca could mix with either rap or dance hall thats the only 2 styles i would say

yep, true totally 100% i agree.
You gotta put shit out there for it to sell, that's what they did to dance hall music and look where it is today.
Music videos are the biggest form of advertisement, either if it's a new artist, a new singel or a new cd.
It all comes down to one thing, music videos advertise an artist/music out into the music world.
It's a all about getting sales and the artist/music into your home and out there for you to buy.
And we are not talking about no lame ass, cheap, low budget videos here, you gotta put out to get back.
And once you have done that, there is no better place to advertise an artist than on mtv.
BET is just one of the first and many important steps of making it , but mtv well
That's when you truly make it, and have been sold out into the world........
But you won't get there without the help of west indian stations.

You guys made some interesting comments, but the one thing, which is the most important, how is soca, in its underground form, make it mainstream without the big record companies backing you? Who is going to do the distribution?

How are these artists going to get the money to do a big budget video? How are these artists going to get their videos on BET and MTV without the backing of the big labels?

How are these soca songs going to make it on mainstream radio without the backing of major labels?

It is nice to talk about soca this and soca that going mainstream, but if you do not have any vision as to how to make this happens, is this another engagement in idle chatter?

i wonder how will they get there hmmmm
let me think....
Some of them are back by a big recording label already, and some of them have the same lable as Sean paul.
So that's not the problem in some soca artist cases.
And alot of them get paid good money at fetes, so why don't they sell themselves.

I think maybe the only sad thing is, some of them have lazy managers.
They need to stop sitting on their asses and help themselves and stop waiting for someone to help them.
And we as in west indian need to stop buying boothleg
(or whatever it is) and invest in our music.

I agree with u 49%.... cuz soca music just can't elavate through a music video itself.... de person has to feel de music and understand it first hand..instead of just seeing it through de eyes of de video director or artist....

if in fact... it is believed that it can elavate through videos... fine...but what if a soca artist comes out with one bad video..and that is de first someone witness of soca music....after that...dem wouldn't feel to understand it at all....

on the other hand...a video like sugar daddy - sweet soca music...and destra - it's carnival....are good music videos to introduce ppl to soca/trinidad with.... but ah don't feel dem define soca at all....yes de videos are flashy and are high in excitment... but it can send the wrong message to ah first time viewer...

la la la...lolz, i go take soca to da next level...lolz

I doo agree to and extent because boston doesnt get shown to much love when it comes to socalypso. Even my mother was thinking of starting up a carribean video show in boston, because half of the time we does hear nice chunes but never no whos the voice behind it .

Video like Sugar daddy.
Hmmm well that have been sold to the world totally, it huge.
It started off in trinidad, then New york then London, and then to the world of europe.
When i was in Switzerland it was number one on MTV European top ten. In Switzerland, France,Germany, Holland and etc.
SUGAR DADDY were even live on a talk show in France, talking about soca music and how sweet west indian islands are.
And everyone was going crazy when the perform live on stage..
( if you saw those white girls,like they wanted to die for them)
They discuss what soca music is and why it haven't been heard to the europen world sooner.
And the host of the show(a bald head white man) even said that soca music is so sweet he can't get the song out of his head, and sugar daddy reply.
''Wait till you hear the rest''.
Sugar daddy made it so hot over there, they made a second video for the same song :sweet soca music :
( talk about money in the pockects now)




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Very shortly after its carnival music video was made. It was taken and view by a Trinidadian at MTV/BET last year.

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