English-speaking islands and Belize, African cultural roots have greatly influenced the beats and form of the music. All these musical forms borrow beats from West African highlife music and have fused North American pop and R&B with the Latin beats of central and South America and Cuba to form distinct musical genres which have significant variations in islands that were influenced by the French. Zouk and cadence are other popular variations. Soca The defining staccato bass was the creation of the late Lord Shorty from Barrackpore, Trinidad and Tobago, and rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1963 hit "Clock and Dagger". He started out writing songs and performing in the calypso genre. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with calypso by blending it with the local chutney — the music of Trinidad's East Indian population — using instruments such as the sitar and tabla. The style was dubbed "soca". See also Romantic Rhythms Music Festival References Notes