The success of power soca lies in its ability to motivate the audience to move. Power soca lyrics contain dance instructions, such as "jump," "wave" and "wine." For this reason, artists write their music to play at festivals and carnivals. The music is fast, with tempos at about 160 beats per minute.
Groovy soca is a relatively new form, starting in 2005. Mid-tempo, at 115 beats per minute, it encompasses more topics in the lyrics and focuses more closely on melody than power soca. Groovy soca is popular in mainstream and international markets, with hits including "Turn Me On" by Kevin Lyttle, and "Tempted To Touch" by Rupee.
Ragga soca fuses Jamaican dancehall with contemporary calypso styles. Jamaican dancehall is a style of reggae that uses electronic instrumentation and fast rhythms, often with violent lyrics that are partially spoken and sung. Contemporary calypso is upbeat calypso with digital instruments and moderate bass. Famous artists of ragga soca include Bunji Garlin and Maximus Dan.
Chutney soca originated in the 1980s, and mixes Indian chutney music with soca. Although chutney music has elements from India, it derives from Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica, where Indian culture left influences in the 19th century. It uses traditional instruments like the dholak, tassa, harmonium and dhantal. The music has a fast tempo and is rhythmic with Hindi-English lyrics. Drupatee Ramgoonai created the fused style with her 1987 album "Chatnee Soca."
Rapso developed in the 1970s as a result of social unrest in Trindad, although the term did not come into use until 1980. It combines soca music with American hip hop. Although originally the style belonged to the children of the Black Power movement, other artists, such as Kindred and 3 Canal, have begun to embrace the style.
Soca music blended with the traditional Trinidadian Christmas music to create a new style called parang soca. Parang soca bands are often very large, with four to six singers, and musicians playing guitar, cuatro, mandolin, violin, cello, bandol, box bass, tambourine, clapper, toc-toc, wood block, pollitos, tiple, scratcher and maracas. Lyrics are in Spanish, due to the Hispanic influences on the style, and are traditional with religious themes.
Steel pans are handmade, bowl-shaped metal drums used in soca and calypso music. Different parts of the pan have different pitches, each drum being unique. The instrument became so popular that a new genre of soca music developed using only the steel pan, called simply steelband.