Versatility in Caribbean Music- Intro
This blog will focus on the theme of Versatility in Caribbean Music.
Photo taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busy_Signal.
Photo taken from: http://216.92.146.44/Artist/RonnieButler/RonnieBio.html.
The word versatility as it relates to music simply means artists ability to adapt or perform several genres and styles of music without sounding weird.
Based on the book Tour de Force, versatility refers to musicians having a wide range of musical skills or practices. The text also mentions that being versatile allows artists to sustain a musical career. The thing about versatility is it places no restrictions on musicians as they are not limited to using one method of demonstrating their talents such as singing, rapping, writing lyrics or playing an instrument. Instead, musical artists can incorporate as many talents and genres as possible to make them stand out among other artists in the field, which I see as a plus.
There are so many Caribbean artist that exhibit versatility in their music however, I will focus on two Reanno Gordon a.k.a Busy Signal and Ronnie Butler.
This popular dancehall reggae artist is straight out of Parish, Jamaica.
Here is a popular song by Mr. Versatile Extraordinaire "Busy Signal." One More Night:
Retrieved from: YouTube.
Ronnie Butler was a famous and talented Bahamian artist he is also known as the Godfather of Bahamian music.
This particular video was chosen because it offers a striking illustration of adaptability. The artist has developed a style that further defines the Bahamian sound to combine such rhythms with goombay rhythms. Similar to the strolling bass line in jazz, the stress points in goombay music were mostly played on the powerful rhythms. When Ronnie combined the goombay rhythms with the salsa and samba bass style, which highlighted the weak beats, the result was this hit "Age Ain Nuttin but a Number" that is well-known to most Bahamians.
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