It's interesting how Soca music makes it's way into popular music all over the world, yet, the proprietors of the genre itself have nothing to do with it. I walked into a club called tube at around 2am last night, and the dancefloor was ram with people, jumping crazily to a DNB remix of Machel Montano's "higher than high" and i was like, huh?
We, in Trinidad, the land of Soca, don't really do much to sell our music. Thats just a plain fact. An unfortunate one, but a fact nonetheless. Some would argue that as an "industry," our artists travel the world, make lots of money, and perform a lot. But the fact remains that we don't have anything closely resembling an industry.
I believe that in order for us to even start to make the kind of moves that we really want to, and to be able to reach outside of the Caribbean diaspora we MUST start at the roots, the grass roots, if you will. We need a movement, an attitude and a strong voice. True, there is an amazing abundance of talent in Trinidad (and the other small islands that produce good Soca) that is fully capable of making dance music that can play on radio stations and in clubs accross the world on a weekly basis, but the only reason that it doesn't, is that we sabotage our own success by coddling to the comforts of our wayward standardization of method.
We need to stop this thing, of making music for carnival alone. period. We need to stop letting these backward, snivelling promoters grab us by the nuts and make us feel like its them "who is boss." What we need to do instead, is make good music, pertinent music, that isn't contrived, or dated, but rather done with the integrity of our sound. what is our sound...

All of this, mind you, is in reference to the movement of Trinidadian music, which I must say is a tragedy so far, because it isn't treated as the Gold Mine that it is.

The quicker we start to create a musical climate conducive to real creation, not cookie cutter carnival stuff, then we'll be taken seriously, because to be honest, people out here love soca, and it influences everyone, from the producers to the DJ's and more importantly, the sound of NOW.

wake up.