Island sounds in the global city : Caribbean popular music and identity in New York

Abstract

Island Sounds in the Global City maps the musical Caribbeanization of New York City, now home to the largest and most diverse concentrations of Caribbean people in the world. Emphasizing the relationship of music to social identity, this volume surveys a rich mosaic of popular Caribbean styles, showing how these musics serve the dual function of defining a group's uniqueness and creating bridges across ethnic boundaries. While Dominicans in Washington Heights think of merengue as their music and El Barrio's Nuyoricans (New York-born people of Puerto Rican descent) identify most closely with salsa, many Latin dance bands play both merengue and salsa, often for the same audience.Brooklyn's Trinidadian community cherishes its calypso and steel pan music, while the borough's Jamaican residents claim reggae as their most significant artistic achievement - yet both are components of Brooklyn's West Indian Carnival. Haitian folkloric troupes often include non-Haitian performers and play for mixed audiences. As early as the 1940s, Greenwich Village clubs offered a variety of Latin and West Indian musicians an opportunity to perform for white and black North American audiences. Today, New York plays a pivotal role, via its sophisticated media resources, in providing Caribbean musicians with a global audience for their music.

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