Calypso music was developed in Trinidad in the 17th century from the music brought by African slaves imported to that Caribbean island to work on sugar plantations. Trinidad's history of colonization has played an important part in the development of calypso music. Influenced by being under Spanish and British rule--and by a large influx of immigrants, especially French--Trinidadians incorporated several languages into a patois that became the language of calypso. Calypso was performed at "crop-over" festivals to celebrate the end of harvests on the sugar plantations, but as the sugar industry declined, so too did the festivals, which ceased in the 1940s. The Crop-Over Festival, now an annual event in nearby Barbados, revived this tradition in 1974.
Since the abolition of slavery, public performances of calpyso have tended to take the form of singing competitions, and the 1920s saw the advent of the Calypso Tent, which took its name from the palm leaves used for shelter at the original crop-over festivals. The first Tent, the Railway Douglas, opened in Port-of-Spain in 1921.
A typical calypso band will include a bass player and a rhythm guitarist, a keyboardist, a drummer, several backing singers, a lead vocalist and a horn section that includes saxophonists, trumpeters and trombonists. There are usually several steel drum (or steel pan) players. The steel drum, originally made from old oil drums, was invented in the 1930s, specifically for calypso music. It has now become synonymous with calypso.
Although calypso music is very upbeat and has a distinctly celebratory feel, the lyrics are usually some form of social commentary, and they often incorporate elements of biting satire about current events. This stems from calypso's origins in the slave trade and a history of Trinidadian songwriters' veiled lyrics about plantation owners (the use of patois meant that the owners could not understand the lyrical barbs aimed at them). Calypso has been called "the voice of social conscience." In recent years, however, calypso has also developed a strand of songs not devoted to social issues, one which often includes risqué lyrics concerning sex.
Duke of Iron and Jules Sims made the first calypso record in 1914, and the genre's popularity has spread ever since. During the 1930s, calypso musicians such as Roaring Lion, Lord Invader and Lord Kitchener were extremely popular throughout the Caribbean. When American vocal group the Andrews Sisters released a cover of Lord Invader's "Rum and Coca Cola" in 1944, calypso gained more international recognition. Perhaps the most well-known calypso song is “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” performed by Harry Belafonte in 1956. Other notable calypso legends include the Growling Tiger, Lord Pretender and Calypso Rose.
By the 1970s, calypso music had become rather staid and old-fashioned. Innovators looked to reinvigorate it by adding different elements and sounds to it. Lord Shorty, a renowned calypso player, added Indian rhythms and instruments to calypso and created soca ("soul calypso") music, which itself has been combined with poetry to create a hybrid, rapso. Other modern versions of soca include soca-chutney and ringbang.