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Soca; Mainstream Madness or Private Party?

Soca legend Kevin Lyttle had a bit of a shady moment last week during an interview, where he stated that although he only has one big hit he’s still more successful than ‘bigger’ artists such as Machel Montano or Bunji Garlin because they’ve never managed to crossover into the mainstream.

My thing is… he didn’t really lie. Turn Me On came out way back in 2003 but still remains as one of the very few soca songs that people outside of the Caribbean and diaspora actually know (along with Jump, Tempted to Touch, and at a stretch, Roll it Gal). Soca music hasn’t really blown the way other genres have, although we may see artistes such as Machel as music giants, he’s really quite insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.

But who’s fault is that?

Soca works so uniquely to every other genre & that makes it hard to determine its success. Because artists work around the carnival calendar, releasing full projects doesn’t necessarily make sense for them. The focus is on making sure they have a hit in time for Trinidad and then another for the summer with smaller projects in between.

Is there a solution?
To be honest, no. If the Soca scene wants to go mainstream it’s either gonna have to change the way it operates or the world is gonna have to adapt to us. But I’m not too sure that there’s a middle ground. In a year Machel releases over 20 songs, imagine trying to get all of them on to the charts. It seems impossible! However, we also can’t just rely on one hit wonders like Kevin Lyttle to carry the weight of the scene on their shoulders.
But as a start, streaming platforms, labels and even award shows need to do much better too! Dancehall, Reggae and Soca are not the same and people need to stop lumping them together. These artists work way too hard to not be recognised properly. Give Caribbean artists the respect they’re due. It seems obvious but all these platforms really need to do is hire people both in the Caribbean and abroad who know the scene well to help them bring our little genre to the big wide world.
Hopefully we see a change sooner rather than later!

RiiHD x

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