Cajun Zydeco Music
Cajun & Zydeco Music and Culture · Louisiana-Style Mardi Gras Dance Party, Cajun Cooking · Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

The unaccompanied ballad was the earliest form of Cajun music. The narrative songs often had passionate themes of death, solitude or ill-fated love — a reaction to their harsh exile and rough frontier experience, as well as celebrations of love and humorous tales. Ballads were ritually sung at weddings and funerals, and sung informally for small groups of people at house parties as the food cooked and young children played. [Source: Wikipedia.org Cajun Music]

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Fais-do-do - Cajun and Zydeco Music is dance music - it could be fast or slow, a two-step, waltz, shuffle or fast boogie. Zydeco is probably the only musical genre that can make the blues sound happy - or, if not exactly happy, at least ready to party. Even though Cajun and Zydeco styles have some similarities, they are each quite unique ...
  • Cajun Music - Cajun music has its roots in early Acadian (Nova Scotia), French, Creole, and Anglo-Saxon folk songs. Many Acadians arrived in Louisiana in the mid-1700's, settling in New Orleans and the surrounding prairies, marshes and bayous. Troubles and hard times were frequent themes in the early ballads and lullabies and were often hummed or sung a cappella. Later, simple instrumentation was added in the form of violins, German accordian and home-made rhythm instruments like the triangle ( 'tit fer). The Acadians brought with them the influences of Native Americans and the Scots-Irish; and the Cajun repertoire includes jigs, reels, and contradances. The Cajuns recognized a good thing, and in Louisiana, they absorbed more music and culture from the Spanish, Germans and Caribbeans. Discover more about the Cajun Culture.

  • Zydeco Music - Zydeco is actually the most modern form of Creole music from Acadiana, first appearing shortly after World War II. Zydeco is a popular accordion-based musical genre originating from southern Louisiana and is the music of south Louisiana’s Creoles. According to the Encyclopedia of Cajun Culture, the Creoles borrowed many of zydeco’s defining elements from Cajun music. Recognizing a good thing, the Cajuns also adapted musical influences of the Creoles. Zydeco now incorporates pop music sources like the blues, soul, disco, rap, and even reggae, using modern instrumentation that includes drums, electric and steel guitars, saxaphones, horns and keybords. Many songs are in English as well as French and Creole patois.

  • Swamp Pop - Louisiana gumbo of rock, country, blues, pop, and Cajun.


More About Cajun Music

Modern Resurgence

A performance by Dewey Balfa, Gladius Thibodeaux and Vinus LeJeune at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was one major reason behind a revived interest in traditional Cajun music in the mid 1960s. In 1972, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana started an annual festival that came to be known as Festivals Acadiens.
A new respect for Cajun culture developed in the 1990s. Among the most well-known Cajun bands outside of Louisiana is the multi-Grammy-winning Beausoleil, who have joined several country music artists in the studio, and served as an inspiration to the Mary Chapin Carpenter hit, Down at the Twist and Shout.

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Delicious Cajun, Creole and Louisiana Recipes

Instruments

In earlier years, the fiddle was the predominant instrument. Usually two fiddles were common, one playing the melody while the other provided the séconde, or back-up part. Twin fiddling traditions represent the music in its purest form, as it was brought to Louisiana with the early immigrants and before popular American tunes mingled with it.
Gradually, the diatonic accordion emerged to share the limelight. The introduction of the accordion can be traced back to German Coast settlers.
In the early 1930s, the accordion was pushed into the background by the popular string sounds of the time. Mandolins, pianos and banjos joined fiddles to create a jazzy swing beat strongly influenced by Western Swing of neighboring Texas.
After World War II, the accordion regained its popularity in Cajun music. Also, in the late 1930s and 1940s, country music became the dominant influence on Cajun music, and bass and steel guitars were used.
Modern Cajun music began taking on the influence of jazz and modern country music, resulting in a more polished sound. The acoustic guitar was added, mostly as a rhythm instrument, and the triangle provided a traditional percussion. Modern groups sometimes include drums, electric bass, electric guitars and amplified accordion and fiddles.

 

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February 2007