Music
Music is an important part of the country's culture. Modern Barbados has produced popular stars of calypso and the indigenous spouge style, and also has a large jazz scene. Reggae, soca, and tuk are popular as well.
The vast majority of contemporary Bajan calypso and soca music centers around the five-week Crop Over festival, whose events begin in late May and run throughout the summer, climaxing in the first week of August with the Grand Kadooment (also known as Kadooment Day), a national holiday in Barbados.
Every January, Barbados hosts the Barbados Jazz Festival. In mid-February, Barbados hosts the Barbados Holetown Festival which celebrates the arrival of the first English settlers.
The popular singer Rihanna was born and raised in Barbados. Although the better portion of her work mainly appeals to R&B audiences, Music of the Sun contains a mixture of Barbadian rhythms and American urban-pop songwriting, just as her Loud album has a mixture of Ragga / Ska rhythms, along with Pop music and R&B / Hip Hop. Robyn "Rihanna" Fenty has been declared Barbados' ambassador of Tourism, securing her a seat in the island's political arena, at least for the next 3 years.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Barbados
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“O I shall hear skull skull,
Hear your lame music,
Believe music rejects undertaking,
Limps back.”
—Owen Dodson (b. 1914)
“A woman’s two cents worth is worth two cents in the music business.”
—Loretta Lynn (b. 1930)
“The band waked me with a serenade. How they improve! A fine band and what a life in a regiment! Their music is better than food and clothing to give spirit to the men.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)