Zouk Nation - "Zouk is the dance of the 21st Century"

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Zouk is a style of music that originated in the French Carribean from the islands of Martinique and Guadalupe in the mid 80’s. The most distinguishing characteristic which all zouk music shares is the beat. Two quick beats followed by a slow down beat, which Zouk dancers interpret as “quick, quick, slow,” or as they like to say in The Netherlands, “chick, chick, doom.”

It is the group Kassav that is most often credited with establishing the sound of zouk. From Guadalupe and Martinique, Pierre-Edouard Decimus and Freddy Marshall formed the band in 1979, when the two men decided to take the carnival music of their childhood and give it a more polished sound. By taking elements of kompa, salsa and calypso and arranging them in original combinations they created their first album, Love and Ka Dance (1980). Although successful in their own country, it wasn’t until their hit single “Zouk la se sel medickaman nou ni” from their 1985 album Yelele, that the band became an international phenomenon.

It wasn’t long afterward the sound of zouk began to spread throughout the Caribbean and managed to find entirely new audiences in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. And with each new culture that zouk has been introduced to, has come new variations of the music. Kizomba, a genre of dance and music from Angola, is one such example. Derived directly from zouk, it is sung most often in Portuguese and incorporates traditional African rhythms into the music. Among the most popular forms of new zouk music is called “zouk love.” Originated in Brazil, it involves a much slower and sensual rhythm. Other, forms of zouk that are showing signs of increasing popularity include soul-zouk, R & B zouk, hip-hop zouk, and from the Middle East, Arabic zouk.