So, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Crop Over, and what do we academic types do with art that has been around a long time?
We analyse it and classify it.
Like other classification systems, there is no one cut-off point; instead, each one flows into the other.
Let me declare my hand now; these periods will deal with areas of creativity within Crop Over, which, in the case of Barbados, are mostly within the soca area (which really starts to come in the 2nd Period)
1st-period Ancient Crop Over Music – 1974-1982
Music of the earliest Crop Over falls under here. The genre of the period is dominated by calypso. In short, this time is mainly based on Barbadian singers, musicians, and producers copying the music from Trinidad.
Key songs from this time:
The Mighty Gabby’s Mr. Harding from 1979.
The drum beat and the melodic construction from this song are all within the typical Trinidadian party calypsos of the 1970s. The instrumentation with the prominence use of “brass” (trumpets and saxes) also makes this a direct copy of what Trinidadian arrangers were doing then.
A similar work from this “Ancient Crop Over Music” time is Viper’s Ting Tong.
Not to sound like a stuck record, but this song, too, displays the characteristics of the Gabby song I posted before. I also want to highlight how melody and harmony work from this Ancient Crop Over Period. There is harmonic movement, and the melodies are less repetitive, especially in the choruses.
This song, Mr Harding from the young artist Red Plastic Bag, comes from the Pic-O-De Crop Competition. This competition is where the heavier lyrical content songs come to be judged in front of a panel, with a winner crowned the calypso monarch. The tempo and the extensive, and I mean EXTENSIVE, verses were typical of these songs, called social commentaries, from the Ancient Crop Over Music period.
The final song I want to post from this time is Jack from the Mighty Gabby. This song also entered the Pic-O-De Crop competition in 1982, but it is a far more uptempo song than Mr. Harding. The verses are shorter, and the melody is much more repetitive despite dealing with a social issue. This song marks the end of this period as the next period began to establish an indigenous Barbadian soca sound.
Catch me on the next blog post for part II – The Blue Wave Period.
Bonus Ancient Crop Over Music Song – Romeo’s Brother Fuzzy
stefanwalcott.com 
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