| Music of Haiti | |
|---|---|
| General topics | |
| Related articles | |
| Genres | |
|
|
| Media and performance | |
| Music festivals | Carnival |
| National anthem | La Dessalinienne |
| Regional music | |
|
|
Kadans is a French Creole music genre, which started off in Haïti, and made popular in Dominica and the French Antilles of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Kadans is the French creole term for cadence.
In the 1950s, Haitian Compas became the dominant pop sounds of the Lesser Antilles, especially Webert Sicot and Nemours Jean Baptiste. These were followed by the Antillean mini-jazz bands like Les Gentlemen, Les Leopards and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe in the late 1960s, who drew on the Haitian sound of Sicot and Baptiste.
In the 1970s, political turmoil led Haitians to flee to Martinique & Guadeloupe, bringing with them their own incredibly popular music, kadans. Widely played throughout the French Antilles both live and on the radio, kadans is played by small jazz ensembles. After its introduction, some Dominican musicians combined it with calypso, creating a style known as cadence (or cadence-lypso). These Haitians drew upon previous success from mini-jazz artists like Les Gentlemen, Les Leopards and Les Vikings de Guadeloupe.