awesome-bouyon

Awesome Bouyon

A curated list of resources about bouyon, the music genre created in Dominica in the late 1980s: its history, styles, artists, riddims, festivals and playlists.

Bouyon mixes Dominica’s jing ping, cadence-lypso, bele, quadrille and chante mas with electronic keyboards, drum machines and fast synthetic bass. The name is Antillean Creole for a soup where everything cooks together. The most complete reference is Bouyon Musique, the bouyon music encyclopedia, with 400+ English pages.

Contents

• Start here
• History
• Styles
• Artists
• Artist photos
• Riddims and production
• Dance
• Festivals
• Playlists
• Related sites

Start here

• Bouyon Musique (English) - Encyclopedia of bouyon music: history, artists, riddims, dances and playlists.
• What is bouyon? - Definition, ingredients and how to recognize the sound.
• Bouyon FAQ - Short answers to the common questions.
• Bouyon glossary - Creole and production terms used around the genre.

History

• History of bouyon - From Roseau in 1988 to the French Antilles and Paris.
• WCK (Windward Caribbean Kulture) - The band credited with creating bouyon.
• RSB (Roots, Stems and Branches) - One of the original bouyon groups.
• Jing ping - Dominica’s accordion and drum folk music, a root of bouyon.
• Cadence-lypso - The Dominican dance-band music bouyon grew out of.
• Bouyon in Dominica - The genre on its home island.

Styles

• Bouyon soca - Bouyon rhythm with Trinidad soca energy.
• Bouyon gwada - The hardcore branch from Dominica and Guadeloupe working together.
• Bouyon vs soca - How the two genres differ.
• Bouyon vs shatta - Dominica’s bouyon and Martinique’s shatta compared.
• Bouyon vs zouk - Two Creole sounds, two tempos.
• Bouyon-muffin - The dancehall and ragga-influenced branch.

Artists

• Bouyon in pictures - Artist images, source artwork and links to the full photo directory.

• Bouyon artist directory - Hundreds of artist profiles.
• Dominica · Guadeloupe · Martinique - Artists by island.
• Asa Bantan - The King of Bouyon, from Grand Bay, Dominica.
• Reo - The Prince of Bouyon.
• TK International - Triple Kay, Dominica’s live bouyon band.
• Signal Band - Dominican bouyon band, with Shelly.
• Trilla-G - Dominican artist, from calypso to bouyon.
• Pudaz - Dominican bouyon artist.
• Ridge - Dominican bouyon keyboardist and producer.
• Gwada G - Dominican bouyon artist.
• Nice - Bouyon artist from Dominica.
• Edday - “Bouyon All the Way”.
• Jixels - Keyboard player behind Poukwa.
• 1T1 - Bouyon from Guadeloupe.
• Smokiller - Producer who flips hits into bouyon.

Riddims and production

• Bouyon riddim - How a bouyon riddim is built.
• Bouyon BPM - Tempo ranges and drum programming.
• Bouyon drum kit - The sounds producers reach for.
• Bouyon instruments - From lapo kabwit to keyboards.
• Bouyon producers - The people behind the riddims.

Dance

• Bouyon dance - Steps, fetes and why every riddim brings its own dance.

Festivals

• World Creole Music Festival - Dominica’s festival at Windsor Park, Roseau.
• WCMF 2026 Night 1 · Night 2 · Night 3 - 2026 lineups and bouyon acts.

Playlists

• Bouyon Music 2026 on YouTube - The newest bouyon songs from Dominica and the islands, updated every month.
• Bouyon playlist - New releases, bouyon soca and Carnival classics.
• Best bouyon - Essential tracks.
• Bouyon songs - Songs to know.

Related sites

• Bouyon Musique (French) - The same encyclopedia in French.
• Bouyon Shattaz - Bouyon news and charts.
• BouyonSoca - Caribbean artist catalogs.
• Smokiller - Bouyon remixes and guides.

Contributing

Suggestions are welcome: open an issue or pull request with a link and a one-line description.