7925: Re: 7870: Meringue: Soukous derived from Konpa??? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Eddie Backer <edback50@yahoo.com>


> From: patrick sylvain <sylvaipa@hotmail.com>
> 
>The zouk rhythm
> also came from our 
> compas, except that with Kassav and other groups,
> they worked/enhanced 
> music. The same is the case for Soukous. At one
> point, the late 60s and 
> early 70s, Coupé Cloué was the favorite artist in
> west Africa (Zaire, 
> Senegal...).  

Haitians need to stop acting like we invented all
music. 

Zouk was started by Kassav' and incorporated at least
as much African genres as it did Konpa. Zouk is not
Konpa and though Konpa may have influenced it, Zouk as
invented by Kassav' did not "come from" Konpa. To my
ear, Zouk encapsulates equal measures of funk,
Soukous, Makosa, Soca, Biguine, Gwo-ka, Konpa, Mende
and other contemporary Black genres. Konpa is by no
means Zouk's main ancestor as many Haitians would have
it.

As for the contention that Soukous came from Konpa, I
am literally ROTFL. I have uncles who have boasted
before that Soca (!), Biguine (!) and Zouk were all
derived from Haitian rhythms and that that had been
possible due to geographical proximity. But to go as
far as to say that Koupe was *the* favorite artist in
West Africa and that Soukous therefore descends from
Konpa is a bit extreme. Soukous is a West African
genre, can we give the West Africans credit for it and
leave Haiti out of it????

 In my opinion, it is not out of the question that
West Africans are often influenced by Caribbean genres
(Reggae has after all overtaken Nigerian music, for
example) but when it comes to Soukous, Latin genres
probably had more influence than Konpa. In fact, I
have never before heard that Konpa had any influence.
The high guitars in Soukous sound distinctly African
to me and don't remind me of Konpa at all, even Konpa
Manba. IMHO, Koupe was probably highly influenced by
the Africans himself both indirectly through Haitian
rhythms and directly through contemporary African
genres.

E. Backer


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