Zouk

Zouk is a fast jump-up carnival beat style originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, originated and popularized by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the 1980s. Very rapid in tempo, the style lost ground in the 1980s due to the strong presence of kadans or compas, the main music of the French Antilles. Today, zouk is the French Antilles compas, also called zouk-love.

Etymology

The Creole word zouke, sekwe, or zouke, etc. from the French verb secouer meaning "shake intensely and repeatedly" was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The word zouk has, over time, come to mean "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French.

History

Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the meringue-kadans or compas influence from the French islands. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully, creating new sound in both their fast zouk béton and compas. The Antilleans were all over with zouk. But as other bands from the Caribbean and Africa added the MIDI technology to their music people got used to it, because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980s and Antilleans would continue to play and dance meringue-cadence or compas. After all, French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the style. However, the problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled compas as zouk or zouk-love in order to remain on the map; creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Bresil, Portugal and other places . Kassav', the originator of the zouk béton, is a compas music band that has taken compas to many places, and is the only band that continues to include zouk béton in its repertoire, though to a lesser extent.