About the Book

Focus : Caribbean Music spotlights the religious performance practices that influence many popular and folk music traditions throughout the Caribbean and the Americas, as well as globally. Myriad styles of music–including rumba, salsa, latin jazz, and hip-hop–have their roots in the religious performance traditions of the African diaspora. It is the first book of its kind to focus specifically on musico-religious performance in a comparative Caribbean context within an engaging and accessible work designed as a core text for courses on musical traditions of the Caribbean. Beyond the book’s specific musico-religious emphasis, it provides students and their professors with a useful and thought-provoking way to understand the roots of Caribbean popular and folk musics–from rumba and salsa to timba and hip-hop–as well as a context for discussions about religion, race, language, gender, embodied performance, and political dynamics.