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  As stated in prior blogs, creolization is the blending or mixing of cultures to form something new and includes the aspects of music, food, dance, religion, and much more. In chapter 2 of  Tour de Force , the three major countries discussed as a part of the French-Speaking Caribbean are Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. There are several examples of creolization discussed; however, only 2 examples will be considered. One example of creolization in this particular section of the Caribbean is the Haitian meringue.  Gangelhoff and LeGrand (2019) describes Haitian meringue as "a creolized version of the contredanse music of European ballrooms" (p.164). It is a mixture of contredanse and the dance music of Africans (enslaved). Key instruments associated with this form of music are the piano, violin, and flute ( Gangelhoff & LeGrand, 2019 ).  Figure #1 - shows a group singing and dancing to meringue. Source: A screenshot taken from   Merengue Haitian, Hava...

In the prior blog, I explored the theme Creolization in the book  Tour de Force  and articulated that this particular theme will be further discussed in many other blogs. Chapter 1 of  Tour de Force talks about  Barbados, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, United States Virgin Islands, and The Bahamas. There are several examples of creolization discussed; however, I will only focus on two from this chapter. One example in chapter 1 is Ska from Jamaica. Gangelhoff and LeGrand (2019) describes Ska as "a fusion of mento with rhythm and blues" (p. 48). This genre is known for its horn section. An example of a Ska band is The Skatalites (as seen in Figure #1 and Video #1). Figure #1 - shows an image of the Skatalites band Source: (Rootsound, 2022)  Video #1 - Guns of Navarone: The Skatalites Source: YouTube This particular video was chosen because it is considered a masterpiece of the Ska genre and was...

 The textbook Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean   emphasizes three thematic threads - creolization, mentorship, and versatility. However, this blog will discuss the theme: Creolization in Caribbean music. The text defines creolization as the "blending of musical (and other cultural) traditions" and states that creolization is also referred to as "syncretism" (Gangelhoff & LeGrand, p.7, 2019). In other terms, creolization can be described as a process in which a new synthetic language or culture forms. Creolization can be seen in many different aspects in the Caribbean such as religion, languages, foods, rituals, and dance. Moreover, new styles of music such as the merengue (Dominican Republic), the son and danzon (Cuba), and mento (Jamaica) are the result of creolization (Roux, n.d.). An example of a  merengue musical band is the Rikarena, as seen in Figure 1. A song sang by this four membered musical band is 'No Puedo Olvidarla' (ref...