Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae
Peter Manuel, Kenneth Bilby, Michael Largey
Hardcover
(Temple University Press, March 28, 2006)
Music is the most popular and dynamic aspect of Caribbean expressive culture. From the well-known genres—salsa, merengue, reggae, calypso, and bachata—to more localized forms like chutney and kaseko, this wide-ranging book surveys Caribbean music's prodigious diversity and colorful history. Enhanced with numerous illustrations and musical examples, Caribbean Currents is an up-to-date overview of the region's music, covering Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, Suriname, and smaller islands like Martinique and Guadeloupe. Engaging descriptions of musical forms and innovations, festivals and dance halls, as well as musicians and fans, are situated in the context of the modern genres' relationship to issues of race, regional diversity, gender, and socio-political conflicts. This revised and expanded version features: * Twenty-seven new illustrations* Recent developments in the region's music, such as the emergence of reggaetón and timba* A new and extensive study of Jamaican dancehall