Bouyon Monarch says enough not being done to promote genre

Carlyn XP wants more done to promote Bouyon

Bouyon artiste Carlyn XP (Carlyn Xavier- Phillip) was crowned the 2017 Bouyon Monarch and has received a cash prize $10,000, but she believes enough is not being done to promote that genre of music.

The artiste and those who competed in the Bouyon Monarch Competition this year were given their prizes last Friday.

She spoke to DNO after the ceremony saying that a marketing strategy is of great importance to get Bouyon out of Dominica.

“We need a marketing strategy that will get the music out, no only in Dominica, but also in the Caribbean and the wider world,” she stated. “We need more marketability in the music with the persons that are heading the marketing department especially in the music industry.”

She suggested that in order to keep the Bouyon music alive, the players along with their instruments, must be kept well.

“We really have to get the music out there, keep making Bouyon music, and not just making Bouyon music, but making music that is marketable, so that people can gravitate towards it,” she stated.

Carlyn XP believes the future of Bouyon is very bright.

Following the two days of street jump up that ended the Carnival season, there were complaints that too much Bouyon music was being played during the parade.

However, the Monarch believes that there can never be too much Bouyon.

“Bouyon music is Dominica’s own, if we don’t play it, who is going to play it for us? I don’t see why there should be any complaints that there is too much Bouyon music playing. First of all, it’s Bouyon bands on the streets, if you want different types of music, and we do, probably one should have different bands on the road,” she said.

She is in full support of Bouyon music being played “more than anything” during the Carnival season.

“We want to play it all year round, we are playing it all year round. So of course, you have to have Bouyon music,” she remarked.

Meanwhile, one of the organizers of the Bouyon Monarch competition, Larry Cambran, stated that there is a lot of hype and excitement to look forward to for the event in 2018, as it marks 30 years of the existence of Bouyon music.

“I want everyone to know that next year will be bigger, louder, more Bouyon, everything. You can think of it as a Bouyon festival. That’s where we are heading, and we know that the artistes are very excited about it,” he said.

‘Beno’ placed second in the competition and he took home $5,000.

A total of 11 artistes took part in the competition on February 18.

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17 Comments

  1. dhestini
    March 7, 2017

    bouyon music is gonna hit 30 yrs. if at that age its still stuck in DA, I have little hopes for it. may as well be a dead genre because what i’m hearing now is not gonna make it out of the kitchen. back in the 90’s when there was WCK, FIRST SERENADE, PIK, RUFF N REDDY, even early 2000’s when KKK made that transition fr zouk/compas with that SEWO album – that was music. that was bouyon. music u cld sing along to – mother n kids, old n young. right now if u go to places like Antigua, is bouyon train n balance batty, that’s whats running things up there. unless we get back to that kind of music, the original bouyon music, there wont be a market. cuz that thing i’m hearing there, jammin on a man ting, and what u doing by jose, that’s not cutting it. that wont cut it.

  2. nicole
    March 7, 2017

    Marketing Bouyon is a nice idea but to be honest this kind of music does not have an international base. How many people outside of the Caribbean does this kind of music appeal too? Not many.

  3. Blessed1
    March 6, 2017

    So I going in itunes and pay for a song to hear a man saying he like his macaroni? Not in this lifetime.

    • Derryck
      March 7, 2017

      Funny, I am still smiling. The lyrics need some improvement.

  4. DLP needs to be retired
    March 6, 2017

    1. She doesn’t really sing “bouyon” and is more of a soca artist so I don’t get how she won

    2. So many little youtes with no money that take part in the competition and they more stick to the rythme and chant format and all you couldn’t give them first place? Is them that have to try and run the show in the future give them a reason to keep going on smdh.
    :roll:

    • Fresh
      March 6, 2017

      When bouyon started, the original bouyon it was like a bouyon, a bit of soca a bit of zouk and even dancehall was thrown in the mix. The signature sound and lyrics that have corrupted what I thought of as bouyon came from Triple Kay who have even started seeing that this style of lyric-less sounds will not get the genre passed our borders towards the southern islands who promote more largely the soca genre. Do not get me wrong, the rhythm of bouyon has been copied and used by a number of artists outside of Dominica and the music they make is, for the most part, more entertaining than ours.
      Our bouyon music does speak to us as a people because it reflects who we are. Listen to a bouyon song and you hear a Dominican. Sad but true.

  5. Chakademus
    March 6, 2017

    Okay, given that more needs to be done, the question is by whom? Do we expect the government to do it? Newsflash, the government cannot do everything. They can create the environment for prosperity but they cannot prosper people, people have to do that for their selves. So if the gov’t cannot, who else? An angel dropping from the sky? Papa Noel? A white man from America?

    We are the ones who have to push ourselves, our culture and our music forward. It’s easy to sit and complain that we not making progress but that will get us nowhere. Even if someone else comes and do it for us they will take ownership for it and the music will no longer be ours.

  6. zandoli
    March 6, 2017

    So who is supposed to do the marketing of the genre?
    The managers/promoters need to understand the BUSINESS so that they can expose the artists and genre to outside audiences. That is how the artists and genre will get the exposure that Dominican artists need.

    To say the genre needs to be marketed outside Dominica, is like singing in the wilderness. It is not going to happen on its own.

    As an example. I organize a picnic every year that attracts mostly Dominicans, but we have a few non-Dominican supporters. I am a subscriber to Spotify and they have millions of songs in their catalog. I brought my tablet to the park and most of the songs that were played were not by Dominican artists. Someone asked why did we not play more Dominican music. The simple answer was that that music was not available on Spotify. Spotify even pays the artists when subscribers play their music. So there you go Carlyn.

  7. A
    March 6, 2017

    Our Bouyon, and soca music needs to be created so that it is marketable, yes. And how do you do that? By making the lyrics appeal to the world. The lyrics can’t just be about Dominica and what goes on here. It means that the rest of the world cannot relate and thus will not support our music the way we would like them to. The lyrics will have to be about what happens in ‘the world’, not just our world.

  8. NoBouyon
    March 6, 2017

    This is the worse kind of music I have ever heard. It’s a shame that this is what was being played on the streets on carnival Monday and Tuesday.

    • Me
      March 6, 2017

      I agree, that so called music has nothing to do with our carnival, detracts from it and debases it.

    • Bouyon I Love
      March 6, 2017

      Yet it’s the most marketable music in Dominica. OK then

      • Dominican
        March 7, 2017

        Perhaps that is the problem. Appeal in Dominica but very little outside. You can not force people to like it. Either they do or don’t. even Classical music is far more marketable worldwide than our bouyon.

  9. Nonsense.
    March 6, 2017

    what foolishness is this? This young mother needs to give her life to Christ and help fight
    the demons that are sinking this country. What a waste of youthful life.

  10. Tjebe Fort
    March 6, 2017

    Listen lady, so long that bouyon soup has been around it is getting stale already. Don’t you think if it was that popular it would have found its own world market already and people like KKK would live in their mansions in Holywood?
    Even Gordon Henderson with his music that is much more dated is doing better than them.
    Music is best promoted by itself, that is why most adverts are accompanied by music or popular songs. I do not know what product you could promote with that noise passing for music.

    • March 6, 2017

      Good point about Exile One’s music. What we need to ask ourselves is why. If I am to reapond I would say the major drawback is lyrics. No storyline just jump, jump ,jump and shake , shake, shake. That’s all. This will sell nowhere. I am a young Dominican in Canada and when I access Dominican music on youtube for my Canadian friends I chose calypso or cadence, never bouyon. Although in all fairness Asa Banton is making a really great effort.

  11. televangelists are false prophets
    March 6, 2017

    the genre needs to clean itself up first. tremendous potential for it, especially as other islands have been stealing our style for years. it can slso easily be mixed with techno, dance and house music etc. the music is there, further than the vocal. i think we need to seriously start working on our lyrical content and delivery. Carlene congrats.

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