The term
White Kompa is used to describe Haitian Kompa music sung by non-Haitian or French-Caribbean singers or artists.
usually Feature a lead vocalist and 2-3 backing Vocalists and sometime a guest-vocalist who 'd contribute a guest verse.
Characterized by and performed on typical musical instruments which are played only by Kompa musicians of Haitian origin.
Key elements of
White Kompa include:
repeated rhythmic phrase,
tone/timbre, Melodic
hook (often with strong use of tremolo (volume oscillation) but not so much vibrato (pitch oscillation).
Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a variants format.
The lyrics in
White Kompa songs
don’t usually have any deep meaning,often the lyrics are frivolous and encourage dancing.
The origins of the genre and term was pioneered by Negre Marron Records' CEO and label Director René Guemps who always thought - if language was the barrier that stop Haitian Artist from crossing over or become mainstream to other mwrket - why not bring artist of non-Haitian Origin and have them crossover to Kompa music.
FYI: This is the first time in the
history of the Haitian Music Industry (HMI) that a record label will be selling the
beauty of an international artist from another
race as a concept in a market that's not his or hers."
Myrtha was the one who suggested that we call the sub genre
WHITE KOMPA instead of KomPOP, because most of the artists who sing that style of music are either from the
United States,
Canada or Europe.