Junior Soca Monarch promoters staying clear of bashment soca

The controversial Junior Bashment Soca competition being hosted by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) will not be replicated by promoters in the private sector.

Paul Clarke, the founder and director of the country’s first Junior Soca Monarch competition said neither he nor his partners had an interest in promoting the sub-genre among the island’s young artistes.

“We don’t do bashment,” Clarke told Barbados TODAY.

“In my view, you either have the sweet soca, which has a slower BPM, or you have the power soca, which is the faster soca. We do not go down the line of bashment.

“Bashment is not a riddim or is not based on BPMs and we definitely do not condone lyrics that should not be on a stage period and definitely not on a stage where children are being featured,” he explained.

The sub-genre, which has often been characterized by lewd lyrics, has largely remained underground. However, in 2019, it was embraced at the adult level and this year, the NCF has decided to  have a junior bashment soca monarch this year

Chief Executive Officer of the NCF Carol Roberts has continuously defended the foundation’s decision to host the festival on the basis that the infectious bashment soca beats can be merged with more wholesome lyrics.

Clarke noted that while he was not interested in featuring the event in the private sector Junior Soca Monarch, he believes the NCF can be trusted to tread carefully when rolling out its event.

“I don’t expect the NCF to let somebody get on a national stage singing songs that are inappropriate. They are more responsible than that, so before we condemn it completely, I would say give them a chance to execute what they are trying to execute and let’s see what type of impact it has,” said Clarke.

“I cannot see how it works. I could understand if you wanted to call it power soca. Bashment is not something that originated with Barbados in the first place, so I don’t really see how we could claim it as our own.

“I don’t know if they are doing specific songwriting workshops or how they are doing it to cater to that younger audience, but we must be mindful of what we expose our children to. But if they have done the necessary research and they think it’s a good idea, more power to them.

“I’m sticking in the realm of developing soca music, because soca music can be very international and commercial and if we can develop more Young Bloods and Allison Hinds and people like Marzville and Hypasounds, people that we can build and export, that can benefit Barbados and the Caribbean in a positive way. That’s what we are trying to do,” he added.

The event promoter, who is also president of the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries explained that artistes are free to pursue bashment soca outside of his developmental programme.

He noted that some artistes, like Lil Rick have been able to straddle between the underground and mainstream soca sub-genres.

“I think the discussion is necessary. We must figure out how we want to guide our children. I know the interest now and what people are talking about is bashment soca. I’ve heard some people asking, ‘why not a junior gospel monarch or gospel soca?’” said Clarke.

“I don’t know what the response was like for them, but to find eight people singing bashment, eight people singing soca and eight people singing calypso, I can see where that might be a bit challenging,” he added. (TD)