BY TEINO EVANS, Staff ReporterMUSIC STORES ACROSS the Corporate Area have reported a drastic decline in the sale of soca/calypso CDs.
Soca in general is already affected by the seasonality of the music, which makes it more difficult for the artistes to raise their universal appeal.
However one record shop representative, Assistant General Manager at Music Fair Limited (Premier Plaza) Nekoli Chambers, says that there has been a steady decline in the sale of the genre.
"There has been a dramatic decrease in the sale of soca CDs over the last five years or more. The periods 1997-1998 saw greater sales of soca CDs, but the reason for this we don't know. One factor might be that carnival in Jamaica went into a decline after 1999," Chambers explained.
"In times gone, we use to sell hundreds of copies (of soca CDs) but now, we hardly even sell 20 copies between our two branches," Chambers said.
One possible reason for the decline, Chambers says, is that "Byron Lee CDs, our main seller, is compiled after the carnival season, and so you find that persons have to wait until long after the season before they can get the new music."
Recent collaborations
In a recent interview with Trinidadian artiste Machel Mantano he stated that recent collaborations with dancehall and soca artistes were aimed at opening up a wider market for their music.
According to Montano; "we are trying to break away from the seasonality, and by combining soca energy with the roots of dancehall music, this will help raise the standard of the music internationally."
In Jamaica, especially, where the culture of carnival is growing in popularity, Soca artistes have reason enough to want to maximize on this growth.
The local sales representatives say that while sales of soca music usually pick up during the carnival season it is still not about to compare to the sales of most other music forms.
"Even in carnival season, dancehall CD's sell more. Carnival is just a one-season, but reggae, R&B and Soul music are right around the year. Overall, carnival CDs reap the least amount of sales," said one sales representative at the Music Mart store in the Twin Gates plaza on Constant Spring Road, St Andrew.
The representative pointed out that persons have recently been requesting some audio visuals from the carnival road march, and according to him, "this more than likely will make good sales."
One of the top selling soca CDs on the market, according to the record stores in the corporate area is Byron Lee's Sexy Body released last year.
