GUNS DON’T GLOBALIZE… LAZERS DO: GLOBALIZATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND TRINIDADIAN SOCA By LUCAS ANDREW REICHLE A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Lucas Andrew Reichle To Anne Thingsaker, for her endless love, patience, and understanding, thank you ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my family. You are my motivation and a constant source of love and appreciation. I would also like to thank my parents and siblings for always being there with moral support and believing in me. I would like to extend special gratitude to my sister Tisha Marie for spending so much time editing this thesis. I would like to thank Dr. Eugene Novotney for introducing me to pan, calypso, and soca, you have given me direction and exposed a passion in me for culture and non-western music I did not know existed until I met you. Thank you for sharing your network of contacts that allowed me to conduct research in Trinidad with ease. I would also like to thank the rest of my educators at Humboldt State University for providing me with the fantastic education that got me to where I am today. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Larry Crook, Dr. Welson Tremura, and all the rest of my professors at the University of Florida, for providing me with the tools and opportunity to achieve this feat. I would also like to express my gratitude for my colleagues and peers at UF for your friendship and for helping me along the way in this process. This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and insight of all the people I met while conducting field research in Trinidad. Very special thanks go out to Matthew Dasent for providing a valuable perspective about the local Trinidadian music community and for putting me into contact with Chris Leacock. Thanks to Chris Leacock for providing insight about the complex points and issues discussed in this thesis. More very special thanks goes out to Keith Maynard for so many things: for being my first friend in Trinidad, for fanning the flames of passion for Trinidadian music and culture, for helping me navigate through the social dos and don’ts, giving me the opportunity to experience carnival to the fullest and for putting me into 4 contact with Pelham Goddard. To Pelham Goddard whose insight clarified the glaring inconsistencies I was at odds with. To Michelle Clarke, Gary Padmore, and Rondell Williams and all the pannist of the Phase II Pan Groove, thank you for opening your space to me and embracing me as if I was one of your own. To Silver Stars, Invaders, the rest of the Woodbrook community of people that have helped me along my way and have made me feel welcome in Port of Spain. To Liam Teague, Mia Gormandy, Johann Chuckaree, Arianna Mitchel, Edwin Gooding, and Tano and Gunda Harewood, thank you for being such passionate and informative contacts. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the soca composers, musicians, and artists that have and continue to make this amazing music. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................9 LIST OF EXAMPLES ...................................................................................................................10 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................13 Introduction to Trinidadian Music Research ..........................................................................13 Background .............................................................................................................................14 Soca .................................................................................................................................15 Terms ...............................................................................................................................17 Methodology ...........................................................................................................................19 Field Research ........................................................................................................................20 Richard Forteau and Pan Trinbago ..................................................................................21 Matthew Dasent and The Dairy Bar ................................................................................21 Keith Maynard and Phase II Pan Groove ........................................................................23 Analyzing the Research I Conducted ..............................................................................24 Brief Summary ........................................................................................................................25 2 PRE-SOCA AND THE BIRTH OF SOCA ............................................................................30 Brief History of Globalization in Calypso and Steelband Prior to Soca ................................30 Tourism ............................................................................................................................30 Oil Boom .........................................................................................................................32 Birth of Soca ...........................................................................................................................33 The Soca Misconception .................................................................................................33 Touring Artists in Trinidad ..............................................................................................35 DJs and Discos ................................................................................................................37 Analysis ...........................................................................................................................38 3 SOCA IN THE 1980S, 1990S, AND EARLY 21ST CENTURY ..........................................51 Soca Through the 1980s and 1990s and the Soca Monarch ...................................................51 David Rudder ...................................................................................................................51 Super Blue .......................................................................................................................53 Technology and Trends ...................................................................................................55 21st Century: Machel, Bunji, and the Groovy Soca Monarch .................................................57 Machel Montano ..............................................................................................................58 6 Bunji Garlin .....................................................................................................................61 Technologies and Trends .................................................................................................62 4 TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS AND CURRENT POP TRENDS ......................65 Technological Advances and the Global Community ............................................................65 Cell Phones, Apps, and TVs ............................................................................................65 Wi-Fi Networks ...............................................................................................................68 Radio and the Seasonal Nature of Carnival .....................................................................68 Internet Music and Video Databases ...............................................................................70 The Mobility of the Modern Producer and the Global Community ................................72 Artists/Fan Relationship and Social Media .....................................................................75 Major Lazer and Current Pop Trends .....................................................................................78 Trap Music .......................................................................................................................79 Major Lazer Introduction and Pop Music Trends ...........................................................82 The DJ and MC Partnership ............................................................................................83 Dubplates .........................................................................................................................84 5 COMMODIFICATION AND APPROPRIATION ................................................................88 Analysis of Globalization .......................................................................................................88 Collaborations, Dubplates, Sampling, and Remixing .....................................................90 The Cultural Mashup .......................................................................................................93 Exposure All Around .......................................................................................................96 Commodification and Cultural Appropriation........................................................................98