Home / Bouyon styles / Bouyon soca

Bouyon soca: when Dominica bouyon meets soca

Bouyon soca is the most popular fusion born around bouyon: the fast rhythms and keyboards of Dominican bouyon meet the energy and the codes of Trinidad soca. The term comes from producers and musicians who live between the two cultures and find it natural to mix them.

The ingredients of bouyon soca

On the bouyon side: a fast tempo, looping keyboard patterns, a heavy synthetic bass and a voice that calls out to the crowd like at Roseau carnival. On the soca side: the festive structure of Trinidad music, made for fetes, parades and choruses sung back in unison. Mixed together, they create a sound that speaks both to Dominicans and to soca audiences across the Caribbean.

Where bouyon soca was born

The fusion developed mainly outside Dominica, on islands like Saint Lucia and Antigua, where bouyon and soca have circulated since the 1980s and 1990s. It became very popular in Guadeloupe and Martinique, where audiences know bouyon by the name jump up. In Dominica itself, purists insist on distinguishing bouyon from soca: bouyon keeps a clear, recognizable, different style.

Why bouyon soca works at carnival

Carnival is the natural ground of both genres. Bouyon soca combines the rhythmic power of bouyon, inherited from jing ping and lapo kabwit, with soca’s call to party. The result: songs made for the road, the bands and the sound systems, travelling from island to island all through carnival season.

Frequently asked questions

Is bouyon soca real bouyon?

It is a fusion: the rhythmic base and the keyboards come from Dominican bouyon, the festive form comes from soca. In Dominica, pure bouyon is distinguished from bouyon soca, but the two families live side by side at carnival.

Where can I listen to bouyon soca?

The Bouyon Shattaz Bouyon Road Mix mixes bouyon, bouyon soca and new releases from the Antilles on Spotify and YouTube.

Read next