Calypso is once again under the lens in a fine unravelling by Raymon Cummings in a recent letter to this newspaper where he expressed urgent concern for the declines in standard, in quality of judging, in song topics, and in marketability of the material. Raymon’s comments are generally on target, and it will be interesting to see the reactions to them, but there are some important aspects that should underpin such discussions.
In the macro sense, and most importantly, the relevance of the music has changed dramatically. The calypso form that most mature Caribbean people grew up with 40 years ago was the
