Love, hate relationship with steelband

THE EDITOR: This letter is for Kevin Baldeosingh. It is good to have you back writing your interesting commentaries. Your article about the ‘‘ethos of pan’’ is one for thought. Permit my two cents. First, the loss of the wide audience came about because the steelband has never won any high status in society. The steelband has always been seen as that aspect of  Carnival whereby citizens express wanton abandonment but after Carnival go back to their ‘‘race and class’’ as was sung by the calypsonian Valentino.

Trinbagonians, especially the African middle class, have always had a love/hate relationship with the steelband movement. They loved the excitement and energy that they got from the pan music. But, because of their Eurocentric outlook they never saw the steelband as ‘‘high culture.’’ High culture was always music, art and literature from abroad. The decline of pan came about because of migration, black power, a new generation and mass media. Trinbagonians have always migrated to ‘‘greener’’ pastures every couple of years. But, with migration came a new replacement that continued with the same values and tastes. However, with the black power movement came a challenge to those tastes and values. And those tastes and values saw a new interpretation, mainly an American version.

As this replacement dwindled, the steelband did nothing to find its own space in the Carnival. Instead, it kept looking to the government for protection from the onslaughts of Americanism. They begged for airplay. They begged for a radio station and protectionism from foreign music. Thus, in the 1920s when hip- hop, reggae (dancehall) and Cable TV (CNN and MTV) came to our shores the steelband was doomed and relegated to the Panorama competition as their only place in society.

Since the steelband lost its place in Carnival, Panorama became the event to control. The new generation did not know the old steelband that was a major part of Carnival. Instead, this new generation saw the steelband as an old relic that gave them ten minutes of fame on stage. After Panorama they returned to their American music. They had no allegiances and belonged to no steelband as their forefathers did. If the steelband they like did not win or came second or third it was bye bye. They moved on to the winning steelband.

Pan Trinbago did nothing to attract them. Instead, Pan Trinbago sought to control the Panorama funds. They sought their pittance from the government. So every year it was ‘‘we did not get enough money,’’ ‘‘we want more money,’’ and so on. They never tried to engage the non-African middle classes. The young local “whites” who were a part of the steelband in the 1960s were no longer around. The college boys of the 1960s were gone forever. It was not as today where a few local “whites” and Chinese play in a steelband. In the 1960s there were local steelbands. The young local “white” boys saw steelband as theirs too. When they left, Pan Trinbago did nothing to bring them back. As a matter of fact it was happy to see them go. For now it belonged to the African who controlled the domain.

The importance of steelpan in carnival will continue to decrease or Carnival will out grow steelband. Its presence is political, I agree. But, all that could change if, and as I say, new political paradigms take hold in the society. The claim of national instrument status for the steelpan was a diversion. If the steelpan was truly our national instrument it would have been given legal status by having an Act of parliament declaring it as the national instrument. The steelband will grow abroad because those societies have a national ethos. Ours is yet to be formed. See you at the rendezvous of victory.

K HEWITT
Port-of-Spain