There is another interesting thread about why calypso and reggae sound so different. Check it out.
why does calypso sound so different from reggae
I made a few points in there but decided to start this other thread to specifically highlight why CALYPSO music is SUPERIOR to REGGAE. I apologize in advance if there is another thread like this one.
Clearly, I'm a huge REGGAE fan. In fact I fell in love with reggae music way before calypso. However, as a musician, I must say that on a strictly musical level, keeping all lyrical content out of the discussion, CALYPSO/KAISO music far exceeds REGGAE music on a number of levels:
1. Chord progressions
2. Complexities of chords used
3. Harmony
4. Calypso music, while it contains some structure, is less restrictive compared to reggae music. This allows for improvisations on top of the melody (for example by a classical guitar) that simply cannot be done in reggae. This makes it more closely related to jazz than reggae.

For comparison here are two masters of the respective genres: Kitch "Pan in Harmony" and Bob Marley "Exodus".
Kitch


Bob

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And just for a very practical demonstration of my point, almost any Caribbean guitarist can pick up his guitar and strum to a reggae tune. Now you tell that same guitarist to try to play a Kitchener or Sparrow tune. Big trouble. I know firsthand!

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Your info is more or less right... the word "superior" might not be the best choice of words though as it implies that one music is better than the other... unless of course thats exactly what you intended to imply.

Agreed. Reggae is more raw and simple than calypso and by extension soca. Calypso is way more orchestrated while reggae is improvised simple melodies. Yeah we can agree on that... what we will not be able to agree on is that those characteristics imply that one is superior to the other.

Fiyah, I see what you're saying. I'm definitely not trying to imply that calypso music is better than reggae. My daily choice of meditative music is reggae (Luciano). By "superior" I mean on a musical level, calypso music goes way beyond reggae music.

Listen to this. Clive Zanda, the master, with a Kaiso jazz.

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Ok. So musically then classical ochestra is "superior" to Soca, Jazz, and pretty much anything else out there then?

I wouldn't say that at all. It's not a matter of the number of instruments that are being used. If you take out each individual part of a classical orchestral arrangement, it's not that complex you know.
To me, the most complex or "superior" genre is jazz. Don't get caught up in the term "superior" though. lol Calypso (early calypso) retained much of jazz and that may be my reason for stating that it's superior to reggae. Sadly, you don't have composers and arrangers with that musical knowledge and hence the poor quality of calypso now.

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1st it is nice to see a discussion without fighting

I have to agree but I think the reason Reggae is simpler is because it is medative music so it has a more hypnotic vibe to it.
Listen to slow Capoeira music very hypnotic


I find that a lot of soca is becoming very simplistic because they want a hypnotic vibe as well.

Ok.. I see where yuh coming from now. And I will tell you that yuh a likkle off base. You are comparing apples to oranges. Calypso pre-dates Jazz. As does Jamaican mento. When Jazz fully flexed its muscles in the 30s Calypso and mento bands began borrowing and playing the harmonies on top of the calypso and mento beats, but neither artform was lacking in instrumentation or harmonies. They even had some of the same improvisation that Jazz later became popular for. Because of the share origins jazz could fit seamlessly in with early calypso. So yeah... in much the same way Jazz will have superior instrumentation and complexities to soul and R&B is the same way calypso/mento/ska will have superior instrumentation and complexities to reggae. In other words, reggae is not calypso's equivalent in evolution and so not really a fair comparison.

But, that said, technically speaking of course calypso is going to be more complex than reggae because it came from a different era of music. Reggae more closely resembles the simplified soul and R&B shootoffs of Jazz.

And remember SOCA is calypso simplified to the more basic harmonies that drive soul/funk/R&B right. Similar to rocksteady from ska.

By the way... there is a very simple reason that there is no fighting in this thread. But ah not going to say it

yeah Fiyah, this was enlightening indeed. I appreciate this. Education never stops. I stand corrected by the way.

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Not a problem as I learn some new things with these discussions too all the time. By the way... I never actually corrected you... technically you are right. Reggae cannot compete with Calypso musically. I just pointed out that you are comparing genres from a different era (which would explain the reasons why they are musically on different levels).

Yeah man it's all good. I also didn't realize that calypso predated jazz. It's amazing, though, how jazz influenced almost all of these genres like Bosa Nova, Calypso, and other Latin genres. We should go back to listening to more jazz and related genres and maybe that can help improve the quality of our music in the Caribbean. Or maybe, a new genre can be birthed too.

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I agree, I can't tell you how much i miss the Jazz in Konpa.

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