Chutney Music: Where Bhojpuri Folk Meets Caribbean Calypso

Chutney_madras_courier
Indo-Caribbeans celebrating their Indian heritage through music and dance in the 19th century. Representational Image. Public domain.
Chutney music is more than a genre. It is an attempt by the East-Indian communities in the Caribbean to reclaim their history.

In 2011, a statue of Sundar Popo was unveiled in the Trinidadian town of Debe. Popo is no freedom fighter or national leader. He is the ‘father’ of Chutney music, a genre of fusion music that emerged in the Caribbean islands around the middle of the twentieth century.

Chutney music blends Bhojpuri folk music, Caribbean calypso, and soca music. If this is the first time you have heard of chutney music, you might be confused about how these three genres sound when combined. If you have listened to chutney music before, you know that the “how” of it all cannot be answered, at least not by us plebian music listeners. It just works.



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