If you are planning to have a vacation in the Bahamas, why not schedule your visit during late December to early January. At this time of the year, you will experience what the music of the Bahamas is all about. There will be an unending blast of Bahamian beat, sounds, and music, much to your delight. 

Bahamian music is primarily linked to a famous event, and celebration called the Junkanoo, which are celebrated on the 26^th of December, and on January 1^st, New Year’s Day.  The celebration has much to do with the music of Bahamas that it has greatly influenced the place’s promotion and preservation. 

The Junkanoo event starts around early morning, parades with colorful costumes and circle dancing to the Bahamian beat marks the ceremony. The parade participants do more of a ‘rushin’, that is not quiet a dance, which consist of two steps forward followed by one step back. Bahamian music from groups like the Baha Men, Ronnie Butler, and Kirkland Bodie has gained enormous popularity in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. 

However nowadays, Bahamian music has been decreasing in recognition throughout the 20^th century partly because of the great influence of American Culture.  The Bahamas’ proximity to Florida’s TV and radio stations, whose signals can be picked up in the Bahamas, has lessened the popularity of Bahamian music, not to mention the arrival of other musical forms such as reggae, soca, and calypso from Jamaica, Cuba and Trinidad, among other Caribbean islands. 

Tourism also has much say in this decreased popularity of the Bahamian music. Japanese, European, and North American forms of cultural expression with music have been brought into the Bahamian music world. However, Bahamian performers, like Joseph Spence, have become underground stars playing Junkanoo, Christian hymns, and anthems of the local sponge fishermen, which include “Sloop John B”, later made famous by The Beach Boys, is still making an impact on Bahamian music. 

The Bahamian music in the celebration of Junkanoo is played with a type of goatskin drum called Goombay, which is used to produce a rolling rhythm for music.  Goombay is the traditional Bahamian music which combines musical traditions from Africa, with that of the European colonial influence.  Goombay is also the Bantu word for “rhythm”. 

During the time when African slaves had very few resources to craft musical instruments, rake and scrape bands were used to play the goombay music.  The rake and scrape bands had a drum shaped out of a pork barrel and goatskin.  A carpenter’s saw was scraped with a metal file, rhythm sticks, maracas, and homemade bass violin, which was a washtub with a string through it that was tied to a three foot stick.  Today’s rake and scrape bands use electric guitars, saxophones and other instruments, aside from saws and goombay drums. 

So if you are looking for a one of a kind vacation, with the loud and energetic sound of Bahamian music, the Bahamas is the place to go. Attending their Junkanoo celebration will let you witness, and get to know more of their music. Starting in the early morning at dawn, the parade with Bahamian music filling the streets is a great experience of Bahamian music, and culture in general.