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the West Indies, that includes 13 independent Caribbean islands and 18

dependencies.

St. Thomas which is the main island of the U.S Virgin Islands located in the Eastern
Caribbean Sea. The capital of St. Thomas is Charlotte Amalie; however, the territory is
composed of three large islands which are St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and The
British Virgin Islands, Tortola which is the neighboring island

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Each island in the VI celebrates carnival, we kick off the festival starting with St. Croix
which begins in December and typically ends in January,

then we head to St. Thomas, which starts in April and ends in May

then we typically end with St. John which starts in June and ends in July. There are
activities for locals and tourists to attend just about every night, but what brings
people together is the food and of course, the music.

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Soca music originated in the Caribbean Island of Trinidad and Tobago in the 1970s, it
is a combination of soul music and calypso combined. Soca stands for soul of calypso;
it was created by Garfield Blackman also known as Lord Shorty who is considered the
father of Soca music. Upon my research, I discovered that Garfield began singing Soca
music at the age of seven.

During the 1960’s when Reggae began to rise there was fear that Soca music was
slowly fading, to help keep the music alive, Lord Shorty decided to take matters into
his own hands and test the sounds of Soca.

He began to combine Indian rhythm with calypso music for at least a decade, this
resulted in him creating Soca music and developing his first hit song called Indrani.

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Some of the instruments used in Soca music are steel pans, horns, a bass guitar, and a
drum kit but that is only a few instruments that can be used to construct a song
amongst many others.

West Indian people are very creative when it comes to creating music, they get their
inspiration from just about anything,

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Every year a local artist and sometimes mainstream artist write a song for carnival, it
is such a tradition that a competition has been developed from it

There are two separate competitions that take place, The Road March Song and The
Soca Monarch. The Road March Song started in Trinidad and Tobago, (T&T)

A winner is determined by the song that is played the most during carnival, and it
must be a song that makes people want to get up and dance, although the
competition started in T&T, St. Thomas also participates in their own Road March,

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Interview From local artist Pumpa

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Listening guide

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Interview from Lorna Freeman

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Listening guide

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