Cierre nuevos líderes actividad “Árbol de problemas”

Merengue de Calle, or Street Merengue—also called “mambo” by some-- has become the sound of urban merengue in the last decade. Omega’s Alante, Alante” (“Ahead, Ahead”) a Dominican colloquialism for the Spanish word “adelante” meaning “forward” or “ahead,” was, in 2007, one of the first Merengue de Calle songs to reach mainstream status. The song features stylistic aspects of “mambo, reggaeton, merengue and bachata all mixed in for a very original, fast paced sound.”96 _{Despite featuring}

sexuality explicit lyrics, and a much faster beat than other concurrent genres of Hispanophone Caribbean urban musics, Merengue de Calle has been relatively well received on both a popular and national level. In 2009 the national Casandra awards (now called “Soberano” awards), created a category to recognize the popularity of the genre. This is not to say that there has not been any backlash from Merengue purists, and older “more elevated classes.”97 _{However, as one music blogger notes, “popular}

96 _{http://www.colonialzone-dr.com/merengue-de-calle.html.} 97 _{“Merengue De Calle: The Sound of the Dominican Underground”}

http://unfashionablylate.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/merengue-de-calle-aka-mambo-the-sound-of-the- dominican-underground/.

pressure became insurmountable; now mambo artists play rallies for major presidential candidates.”98

That there has been a concerted and united front promoting Merengue de Calle, and a consequential response from officials is notable within the region. It is also notable that despite the fast pace of the music, much of the dissention is in reference to the vulgar lyrics and minimalism of the music. Mentions of the tempo, itself, have in some instances been associated with the virtuosic or “avid” dancing it necessitates as opposed to the connotations of reckless abandon that typically accompany fast-paced dancing within St. Kitts and Nevis. This distinction may be related to the widespread knowledge of distinct merengue dance moves.99 _{Further, the geographic disparity between the two}

countries is stark. The Dominican Republic occupies 18,704 square miles with a

population of roughly 10 million while St. Kitts and Nevis occupy 65 and 36 square miles respectively, with a total population of approximately 54 thousand. A comparison of these figures suggests the possibility that there may exist more room for cultural heterogeneity within the national scope of the Dominican Republic. Merengue de Calle as an urban music represents a legitimate portion of the nation’s populace. Within St. Kitts and Nevis, however, there is very little room—quite literally—for geographic or even demographic distinctions within the confines of the nation. That the Dominican

Republic gained independence nearly one hundred and forty years prior to St. Kitts- Nevis, from a different colonial empire, is an additionally pertinent factor if we

acknowledge music as an important part of postcolonial nation-building and recognize the varying legacies of different instances of European colonization. Still, it is my suggestion that the general lack of dialogue of Merengue de Calle’s tempo, itself, as a

98 _Ibid.

99 _{See Paul Austerlitz, Merengue: Dominican Music and Dominican Identity. (Philadelphia: Temple}

problematic, or even discussion-worthy aspect of the genre is a testament to the universal ambiguity or, perhaps, the socio-culturally specificity that surrounds any conception of what “too fast” is.

That said, it is particularly notable, if not strange, that Anglophone West Indians would fault any genre of music due solely to its fast tempo. This is particularly true when considered in the context of Caribbean popular music history since the 1980s and the early development of soca and dancehall. Indeed, many Caribbean music scholars recognize the incorporation of faster tempo to be a signature feature of these two genres’ deviation from earlier styles.100 _{Even if we regarded music from St. Kitts and Nevis as}

faster than other decidedly fast genres of Caribbean music, the markedly different discourse surrounding other types of Caribbean fast music, such as “ultra fast” 101

Merengue de Calle in The Dominican Republic suggests that a) being too fast is not globally—or regionally—recognized in the same ways, if at all; and b) that historical context is of tantamount importance to understanding what is and can be perceived as fast within a socio-cultural context.

Taking up this vein of thought, this chapter is primarily concerned with teasing out the ways in which fastness is understood and employed within the national, racial, and cultural context of St. Kitts and Nevis. By isolating [un]interpretability as the culturally and historically sensitive feature of multi-and interdisciplinary approaches to and conceptions of fastness and tempo, I underscore the problematic of discussing tempo and fastness in generalized and universal terms. Using Walter Mignolo’s notion of coloniality/modernity, this chapter ties the prevalent impetus to regard tempo

100 _{This is particularly true for soda’s development from calypso, a stylistic turn heralded by Lord Shorty}

(Ras Shorty I). See Jocelyn Guilbault “On Redefining the Nation Through Music” in Milla Riggio, ed. Carnival Culture in Action: The Trinidad Experience. (New York: Routledge, 2004), 228-238.

101 _{“Merengue de Calle.” Accessed June 19, 2013. http://www.colonialzone-dr.com/merengue-de-}

universally to the larger history of coloniality, and further demonstrates how coloniality (as central to both the temporal and social) has defined notions of fastness in the Anglophone Caribbean. By employing decoloniality as the theoretical parallel to the on- the-ground response to coloniality, finally, this chapter presents decolonial aesthesis as a frame for this dissertation’s exploration of two local and colonial iterations of fastness, and the decolonial and musical responses thereto.