Students could soon be exposed to Barbadian spouge and jazz in a big way, allowing the musical genres, particularly spouge, to become part of their national consciousness.
It’s a step that has the support of the Barbados Association of Creatives and Artistes (BACA), with president Sean Carter telling Weekend Buzz it is move in the right direction.
“Any initiative promoting local music and local artistes has my support 100 per cent, especially with the amount of exposure than our young people have to the American music culture,” he said.
Earlier this week in the Senate, during debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2025, Minister of Educational Transformation Senator Chad Blackman spoke about the music plan, saying that since taking up the ministerial portfolio he told staff he wants to see a change where the arts are concerned because “for a long time, we’ve had the arts as a module or subject, and broadly”.
“ . . . . Similar to how they do in Europe and other parts around the world, I’ve instructed a team in the ministry to pull together a team working with the National Cultural Foundation, where our students are exposed to music, but in a non-traditional way,” he said.
“And what do I mean? As you come into school from the pre-primary, primary, secondary or before your class, you should be exposed to what I call a Bajan playlist of music composed by our best artists, our new, upcoming musicians, but in Bajan spouge and Bajan jazz music that is soothing.
“So, we’re not talking about the high beats per minute genres like the bashment music, no, there’s a place for that. What I’m talking about is, as I said, a fusion of Bajan jazz and Bajan spouge with messages of affirmation, very calming.
“What it does, it allows for the school environment before classes start to be calm and soothing. [It] helps teachers to soothe and calm. It helps students to soothe and calm. But what it also does is to incorporate our national treasure, our music, our musical identity, into our national consciousness and DNA at an early age. Therefore, our students therefore become exposed to our genre,” said Blackman.
Carter said that while he understood the significance of spouge and what the minister is proposing by including jazz, Barbados has some “very good music in other genres”.
He made a suggestion: “If you’re going to include spouge, we have artistes like 2 Mile Hill that has some very good tracks in the R&B/pop genre as well. If you’re looking for the more calming music, we have a variety of established and upcoming artistes that would not just limit it to jazz if you’re going to include jazz, which is not indigenous to Barbados as spouge is.
“It is wonderful for the young people to be exposed to the spouge genre. I think that it could be a private-public partnership between some entities and the Ministry of Culture or the National Cultural Foundation in really seeking to revive spouge music in Barbados starting with the schools.
“There is a need for the revamping of spouge to have a different form and not just the hardcore spouge format we’ve known. Mixing it with some other genres such as spouge and jazz, which Nicholas Brancker has done live on a couple occasions. Tinker with it to see what evolves.
“[Senator Blackman] would definitely have the support of BACA and I am sure it would give further incentive to artistes to produce some more of the music in this genre because if there is a market for it, and if artistes can see how it is helping the youth and society at large, then I’m sure they would be willing to go in that direction because recording is quite expensive,” he told Buzz.
Blackman had also said that for spouge to grow in the same way that reggae, pop, Afro beats and amapiano have, it must become “part of the daily reality” and daily exposure to it would go beyond a concert at Jackie Opel Amphitheatre or during NIFCA. (GBM)
