Chutney Bachannal Analysis

The song “Chutney Bachannal” by Chris Garcia, and its music video is an interesting piece because it demonstrates an integration of cultures. When I first saw the name of the artist, Chris Garcia, I thought that he would be a person of Hispanic or Spanish descent. Later, as I watched the video, I realized that Chris Garcia was actually an Indian man. I also found it unusual that an Indian man was displaying his Hindi culture but was singing and gyrating to a Soca song. Soca music, also known as the soul of calypso, is a genre of music that originated from the Caribbean. It began within a marginalized subculture in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 1970s and developed into a range of styles in the 1980s and subsequent years. The first question raised in my mind by this entire scenario, was “How is a Hindu man, as we locally refer to them in Belize, with a Spanish name, singing Caribbean Soca?”

After some research, I found out that between the years 1840 and 1917, Indians were brought to the Americas by the Europeans to work as indentured laborers in place of African slaves who were relieved due to the abolition of slavery. The arrival of the Indians to the …show more content…
These instructions includes “Everybody come come, one hand on the waist, one hand in the air, wine, wine, wine, go down, go down, go down, come up, come up, come up, fire the water, fire the water, chutney bacchanal, chutney bacchanal.” Though some may say that the inclusion of dancing instructions in a Soca song is derived from the slavish mentality to always follow a leader, I beg to differ and find it quite entertaining and high energy for a performer to motivate an audience and get them moving, especially those who are often more comfortable merely sitting and watching a Soca concert. That to me represents the true energy of soca music and I certainly found that present in Chutney Bacchanal by Chris