The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean. Nestled in the volcanic arc, there is the island of Guadeloupe, an unassuming French territory that punches way above its weight when it comes to music – specifically as the birthplace of zouk, one of the Caribbean’s most influential modern musical genres.
Zouk Machine – Maldòn (1989)
Author’s note:
In my Americanized mind I think of lush beachfront mountains filled with hula dancers and Polynesian tiki statues when I hear anything even slightly island-y. Maybe I think this because the French colonized both areas, or maybe because I am the victim of propaganda from the Los Angeles tiki-craze of the 1950s that sparked the rampant and ill-informed American tiki bar culture, but I digress… (I mean, what’s wrong with having a few rum drinks, mispronouncing Hawaiian words, and pretending for one night that you’re not from a city named Rancho Cucamonga?) Actually, that sounds kind of nice.
While Guadeloupe and the French West Indies do have picturesque views, their people, cultures, and traditions are notably different.
Many of Guadeloupe’s musical inclinations stem from the 17th century Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, in which Gwo Ka music arose, with complex drum melodies providing the beat for ceremonial gatherings. Although the enslaved people were forbidden access to drums, they provided their own beat by creating percussive noises with their mouths in the vocal technique known as bouladjèl. This marked a decidedly rebellious epicenter from which the modern music of Guadeloupe emanated.
The Gwo Ka style of music proved to be an important piece of inspiration for the Guadeloupean group Kassav’, along with rhythms from Martinique, Haiti, and Dominica. According to the book Language, Rhythm, and Sound: Black Popular Cultures into the Twenty-first Century, genres like compas and kadans informed the sound of the group, using the addition of MIDI technology in the ‘80s to blend traditional Antillean music into a more modern fusion of salsa, funk and rock. Synthesizers, punchy horns, and upbeat polyrhythmic percussion in the Carnival style make the bed for catchy choruses that are easy to remember. The band’s influence was so great that they pioneered an entirely new music genre called zouk.
At first, record labels didn’t know what to make of the new sound.
Kassav’ went to Paris to record their first album Love and Kadans in 1979, where it was initially regarded as “too ethnic” for mainland France and too avant-garde for the Caribbean. Despite this, their music caught the ears of the public with its irresistible dance rhythms and basslines, and their 1984 hit-single “La sé sèl médikaman nou ni” captured them success and recognition on a larger scale than ever before.
In an interview with Radio France, the founder of Kassav’, Pierre-Éduoard Décimus, described zouk music as, “… a music of identity affirmation”, explaining that the young people of African descent in Guadeloupe cemented a cultural identity and connected with each other via the fledgling genre. With zouk featuring the Antillean Creole spoken in Guadeloupe (which differs significantly from the mainland French dialect), it allowed those people, who were alienated from both their places of ethnic origin in Africa and their colonizing country, to form a proud culture of their own. However, despite being so culturally rooted, the philosophy of zouk was not to be gatekept. Decimus went on to say, “I’m proud to be at the origin of what zouk has become, but now everyone has the right to make it their own.”
Kassav’ –Majestic Zouk (1989)
“I listened a lot to the music of Kassav’, the West Indian group that plays the music called “zouk”. They are a great group. I admit that they influenced some tracks on the album Amandla, which means freedom in Zulu, the South African language.”
-Jazz superstar Miles Davis
Sometimes zouk music feels like the soundtrack to a tropical beach level in a Nintendo game. The genre is often most known for its dance hits that nail it with the fun, upbeat island rhythms with light-hearted French-Creole female vocals that really make you feel like you could play beach volleyball without getting tired after five minutes. These songs fall under the category of zouk-hard with their catchy refrains and appealing beats. Other times, it feels romantic, like swinging on a hammock with the person you love as you take in the natural ocean beauty. This would be more like another sub-genre called zouk-love, and according to ethnomusicologist Jocelyn Guilbault in her book Zouk: World Music in the West Indies, a good example can be heard in “Sublime” by Eric Virgal, a song whose title encapsulates the feeling of the music perfectly.
Another group that I would be remiss to not highlight is the dynamic sensation that is Zouk Machine. An all-female trio, Zouk Machine is another of the few zouk artists that saw major commercial success, with their single “Maldon (La musique dans la peau)” selling over one million copies. In 1990, the song lodged itself firmly in the number one spot of France’s Top 50 chart, and stayed for nine whole weeks. With this, Zouk Machine exceeded even the success of Kassav’, and confirmed zouk as a genre that oversteps the Caribbean community from which it hails, connecting a global audience to the tunes that refuse to be ignored. At least for me, I find it impossible to listen to one of their songs without tapping a foot or nodding my head, so it is easy to see how they were able to garner so much affection globally.
Photo: Medium
Joelle Ursul, one of the Zouk Machine girls, went on to represent France in the 1990 Eurovision song contest where she placed second with her single “White and Black Blues”. In other corners of the world, zouk music was adopted and used in popular culture, inspiring many artists of different backgrounds and providing the soundtracks to television shows. Brazilian takes on zouk have incorporated it into dance choreography that’s been featured widely on shows such as World of Dance.
It is inspiring to see zouk flourish, given the deep background in traditional Guadeloupean music stemming from the Creolization under the slave trade and imperialism of that time. The history of this unique movement goes to show that even while oppressed, music finds its way through the cracks in the concrete. Zouk became the beating heart of Guadeloupe, bearing an immense cultural significance that people constantly celebrated through song and dance. Not only that, but the music transcended the Caribbean theater, reaching out into the far stretches of the world but bringing the island philosophy with it. Communicating through rhythm and Creole lyrics, bands like Kassav’ managed to cross linguistic boundaries and invite wide audiences into the dynamic zouk lifestyle. To me, that is zouk excellence.
Kassav’ would always end their performances with the simple phrase: “Sa se zouk!”, meaning, “that’s zouk!”. So with that, this article ends:
Sa se zouk!
P.S. If you illegally download zouk music, you could be considered a pirate of the Caribbean.
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