Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials.
Cajun music is relatively simple with an infectious beat and a lot of forward drive, placing the accordion at the center. Besides the voices, only two melodic instruments are heard, the accordion and fiddle, but usually in the background can also be heard the high, clear tones of a metal triangle.
Most notable early traditional Cajun musicians were Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux, Amédé Ardoin, Breaux Brothers, Segura Brothers, Leo Soileau accompanied by accordionist Mayuse (Maius) Lafleur or Moise Robin, and Dennis McGee accompanied by fiddler Sady Courville or Ernest Frugé.
Texas Swing Cajun involves heavy elements of Texas country music influence and a move away from the traditional accordion. This music has more of a "swing" style popularized by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Instead of the music being dominated by the accordion, Cajun swing relies heavily on the fiddle and piano with a swinging tempo. Bands in the 1940s began using the steel guitar, an instrument which also found use in Dancehall Cajun music. Dances such as "the jig" are common among this genre of Cajun music. With the influx of English speaking people into southwest Louisiana oil fields, and the migration of French speaking Cajuns into southeast Texas oil fields and refineries, it was common for performers to sing in both French and English and borrow heavily from the popular country music and Texas swing music of the day heard on radio.
The most notable musician is Harry Choates who had the first national hit recording of a Cajun music song, Jolie Blonde, in 1946. Other successful groups from the 1930s and 40s include Leo Soileau and His Four Aces, the Hackberry Ramblers, Happy Fats and the Rhythm Boys, the Alley Boys of Abbeville, the Dixie Ramblers, and J.B. Fusilier and His Merrymakers. Choates' Jolie Blonde, and Hank Williams' song Jambalaya (On the Bayou), which used the melody of the Cajun song Grand Texas, spawned regional and national interest in the music, opening the door to Nashville country music careers for Cajun musicians Jimmy C. Newman, Rufus Thibodeaux, Doug Kershaw, Jo-El Sonnier, and others.
This style of Cajun music is well documented by regional records producers such as Floyd Soileau (Swallow), J.D. Miller (Feature, Fais Do-Do), Eddie Shuler (Goldband), Lee Lavergne (Lanor), Carol Rachou (La Louisianne), George Khoury (Khoury, Lyric) and others.
In the late 1960s to the present, a period in Louisiana of burgeoning pride in the local Cajun and Creole culture and interest in preserving the French language and uniquely Louisiana traditions is known as"'Renaissance Cajun". Drawing on elements of the earlier Traditional, Texas Swing, and Dancehall periods, it also incorporates more modern elements of folk, blues, jazz and swamp pop, and bluegrass styles. The fiddle players relax, involving a more legato feel to the solos. The quick fiddle action and double stops are missing, replaced by dominant blues chords and jazz slides. When bands like the Balfa Brothers, Octa Clark and Hector Duhon, and the black Creole band Bois-Sec Ardoin and Canray began to appear and perform at prestigious national folk festivals like the Newport Folk Festival, the University of Chicago Folk Festival, the National Folklife Festival, etc., they inspired renewed interest in Lousiana in Cajun and Creole music, leading to the contemporary Cajun music scene.
Pioneers such as Beausoleil with Michael Doucet, Zachary Richard, Jambalaya, Bruce Daigrepont, and others broke new ground, while other musicians such as Eddie LeJeune, Robert Jardell, the Frères Michot, and others brought energy to older, more traditional forms.
The genre continues with "modern traditionalists" who draw on a variety of elements from the broad history of Cajun and Creole music. From the 1990s to the present, artists such as Cory McCauley, Jason Frey, Mitch Reed and Randy Vidrine, Balfa Toujours, Ray Abshire, the Lost Bayou Ramblers, the Pine Leaf Boys, Chris Miller and others, have been popular with contemporary audiences while maintaining a connection with traditional forms.
Cajun music with a heavy influence of rock, R&B, blues, soul, and zydeco, produces a less traditional, more contemporary sound. Although led by the accordion, you can find the electric guitar, scrubboard, and keyboard present in this form. Since the 1980s, musicians such as Wayne Toups, Damon Troy, Hunter Hayes, Kevin Naquin, and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys have popularized this modern form of Cajun music.
Zydeco is a form of American roots or folk music, that evolved from the jure during the late 1800s call and response vocal music of the black and multiracial French speaking Creoles of south and southwest Louisiana. During the early 20th century this soulful, heavily syncopated, indigenous roots music was discovered by ethnomusicologists and record labels alike. Usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano (old world) accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir, zydeco music was originally created for house dances so the blacks and free people of color of south Louisiana could gather for socializing. As the Creoles further established their communities and worshiped separately as well, the music moved to the Catholic church community center and then later to the rural dance halls and nightclubs. As a result, the music integrated waltzes, shuffles, two-steps, blues, rock and roll, and most dance music forms of the era. Today, the tradition of change and evolution in the music continues always keeping relevant while integrating even more genres like reggae, urban hip-hop, R&B, soul, brass band, ska, rock, Afro Caribbean and other styles in addition to the traditional forms.
The music was brought to the fringes of the American mainstream in the mid-1950s, with the popularity of Clifton Chenier, who was signed to Specialty Records, the same label that first recorded Little Richard and Sam Cooke for wide audiences. Chenier, considered the architect of contemporary zydeco, became the music's first major star, with early hits like "Les Haricots Sont Pas Salés" (The Snap Beans Ain't Salty - a reference to the singer being too poor to afford salt pork to season the beans). The term "zydeco" was a corruption of les haricots (French for the beans), and the name for the music was born. However, this was not the first zydeco song: in 1954, Boozoo Chavis, another popular zydeco artist, had recorded "Paper in My Shoe". This is considered to be the first modern zydeco recording, though the term "zydeco" was not in use yet .
In the mid-1980s, Rockin' Sidney brought international attention to zydeco music with his hit tune "My Toot Toot". Clifton, Rockin Sidney and Queen Ida, all garnered Grammy awards during this pivotal period in the genre opening the door to the emerging artists who would continue the traditions. Ida is the only living Grammy award winner in the genre. Rockin' Dopsie recorded with Paul Simon and also signed a major label deal during this time. John Delafose was wildly popular regionally and then the music took a major turn because during this time there were emerging bands that burst onto the national scene during this critical time to fuse a new exuberance, new sounds and styles with the music. Boozoo Chavis, John Delafose, Roy Carrier, Zydeco Force, Nathan and The Zydeco Cha Chas, The Sam Brother, Terrance Simien, and Chubby Carrier, and many others were breathing new life into the music. Zydeco superstar, Buckwheat Zydeco was already well into his career, and signed his major label Island Records deal also in the mid 1980's. All of these things combined with the popularity of Cajun and Creole food nationally, and the feature film, The Big Easy, led to a resurgence of the Zydeco music traditions, cultivating new artists while the music took a more innovative direction for increased mainstream popularity.
Modern zydeco musicians, such as C.J. Chenier, Chubby Carrier, Geno Delafose, Terrance Simien, Nathan Williams and others began touring internationally during the 1980s. Beau Jocque was a monumental innovator who infused zydeco with powerful beats and bass lines in the 90s, adding striking production and elements of funk, hip-hop and rap. Young performers like Chris Ardoin, Keith Frank, and Zydeco Force added further by tying the sound to the bass drum rhythm to accentuate or syncopate the backbeat even more. This style is sometimes called "double clutching."
The Zydeco Rub board (Frottoir) is recognized around the world as a a cultural icon of Louisiana. The impact of zydeco music inside southwest Louisiana, outside Louisiana and around the world is growing rapidly. There are zydeco festivals throughout America and Europe.
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_music