Zouk

Zouk is a fast jump-up carnival beat style originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, originated and popularized by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the 1980s. Very rapid in tempo, the style lost ground in the 1980s due to the strong presence of kadans or compas, the main music of the French Antilles. Today, zouk is the French Antilles compas, also called zouk-love.

Etymology

The Creole word zouke, sekwe, or zouke, etc. from the French verb secouer meaning "shake intensely and repeatedly" was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The word zouk has, over time, come to mean "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French.

History

Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the meringue-kadans or compas influence from the French islands. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully, creating new sound in both their fast zouk béton and compas. The Antilleans were all over with zouk. But as other bands from the Caribbean and Africa added the MIDI technology to their music people got used to it, because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980s and Antilleans would continue to play and dance meringue-cadence or compas. After all, French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the style. However, the problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled compas as zouk or zouk-love in order to remain on the map; creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Bresil, Portugal and other places . Kassav', the originator of the zouk béton, is a compas music band that has taken compas to many places, and is the only band that continues to include zouk béton in its repertoire, though to a lesser extent.

Zouk (disambiguation)

Zouk may refer to:

Zouk (club)

Zouk is one of the oldest and most popular nightclubs in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The club is named after the French creole word for 'party'. It has won the Singapore Tourism Board's "Best Nightspot Experience" award 6 times, between 1996 to 2007. Zouk is also ranked number 10 on DJ Magazine's list of Top 100 clubs in the world in 2006, 2007 and 2010.

In September 2015, its founder, Lincoln Cheng, sold the iconic club to Genting Hong Kong, an affiliate of the Genting Singapore. The brand and its business was valued at S$40 million by financial audit firm Ernst & Young in 2013.

Events

ZoukOut is an annual music dance festival held in Singapore since 2000. One of Asia's biggest music dance festivals, it is organised by Zouk Singapore. DJs that have performed at ZoukOut include Paul Van Dyk, 2ManyDJS, Masters at Work, Gilles Peterson, Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Peter Kruder, James Lavelle, Armin Van Buuren and Stereo MCs. In 2008, ZoukOut saw its largest turnout of 26,000 in attendance, an increase of 3,000 attendees in 2007. ZoukOut has also won the Singapore Tourism Board’s “Best Leisure Event Experience” award thrice, between 2005 and 2008.