EVERY GENRE PROJECT - July 13 - Zouk

Genre of the Day - Zouk

Album of the Day- Las Palé by Feeling Kréyol (1980)

Today we reach another rare genre among the most underappreciated letter in the English language. Like zydeco, today’z genre iz a jaunt az fun to zay aloud az it iz to lizten to. Phonetically, Z is a letter pulsing with tooth-generated electricity that lends a buzzy energy to the dance floor—I vote more genres come into existence honoring it. 

Zouk lies at the end of a chain reaction in a lesser talked about chain of the Caribbean islands that still belong to France, though with a cultural sphere all their own in musical conversation with the whole region. Taking inspiration from other Caribbean dance genres like Dominican meringue, Haitian compas and calypso, the term zouk (seemingly without translation, indicating the z’s mystical power) was historically used to refer to the all night dance parties of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It took on new life in the form of a genre that became the pride of the islands’ as a sound distinctive to their dancefloors. Zouk’s story represents music’s power to both take what’s familiar and percolating around the sphere of a listener’s world while making it feel special and distinctive thanks to particular timbres and sonics. 

Zouk emerged into being in the disco era with the vision of the Guadeloupean group Kassav’; just as the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique were putting forth créolité in the literary scene, which asserted the importance of the islands’ creolized culture rather than solely ascribing to the culture of Metropolitan France or larger Caribbean hubs, Kassav’ pioneered a sound that brought together synthesizer magic and dancehall exuberance, all in these islands’ dialect of French Creole. Zouk was polished and slick in its group harmonies and synthy sheen, reflecting its pioneers’ ambitious vision of the pride it brought the islands. That vision certainly had the intended effect: zouk records garnered interest in France, while spinning off into new styles and even wandering down to Brazil. Zouk features a particular emphasis on interlocking melodies rather than all the instruments following the same melody to avoid over-density, allowing technologically-assisted sound design reminiscent of dub to shine rather than getting buried as a lump sum. 

Though zouk may have theoretically been a product of studio-assisted sophistication, the sheer expense of that luxury made producers cut corners at times as on today’s album. according to anecdotes about this album, this resulted in certain parts not being properly synchronized, but despite its attention-to-detail with sound design dance music’s function reflects little of this perfectionism and aims to push listeners to let loose. The grooving bass guitar, snappy drum machine kicks, and lovelorn wash of “Kwen Pe Ké Pé” drive a listening experience as rich and colorful as intended. The group’s vocals are feathery and sweet, but the spacious tones of the hit “Las Palé” and on the laidback “Gadé” offer a tonal journey within just six tracks as zippy as zouk can be. If we can tranzform thiz world into a zouk world, I have to imagine we’d live in a radically more danceable world of sound manipulation heaven.