Roots Report: Soca's "lack of success"

	Kevin Lyttle has had an international hit with 'Turn Me on

Why has calypso/soca not done well internationally?

One Barbadian artiste believes he has the answer.

John King, a former island calypso king, says it might be the result of a conspiracy among major music labels to keep soca at bay.

Soca, calypso's party sister, has managed a few hits internationally but a real breakthrough has proved elusive.

"Hot Hot Hot" by Arrow is, quite remarkably, still a staple of the international circuit after it was first recorded in 1982.

He can lay claim to putting soca on the international map.

It was 21 years ago that Buster Poindexter's cover version of Arrow's hit carried it into the American charts.

	Machel Mantano is one of soca's more popular and better known performers

In 2000, there was more success with Baha Men's soca-tinged "Who Let the Dogs Out", another cover of Anslem Douglas' Trinidad carnival hit.

Four years later Rupee and Kevin Lyttle also made it to the Billboard Hot 100 with "Tempted to Touch" and "Turn Me On," respectively.

But these are rare forays into the mainstream -- and soca remains without a truly genuine international star.

John King feels the road has been made difficult, deliberately so, by music labels.

He told the Barbados Nation newspaper: "I have tried over the years to get this music to the mainstream American radio stations and all you butt up on is: that the quality of the recording is not good; there is no format that we have that can play it; all sorts of stumbling blocks."

However another soca star, Antigua's Onyan, offers a different view.

He told BBC Caribbean that it's a matter of how to music is marketed: which brand of soca is targeted at specific audiences.

Listen to Onyan in this Marie-Claire Williams report

Montserrat-born soca veteran, Arrow, told BBC Caribbean last year that when his 'Hot, Hot, Hit' hit the scene, international labels were willing at that time to embrace soca.

But he said short-sighted producers and promoters in the region resisted over fears they would be shunted aside.

An opportunity was therefore lost, in the Montserratian's view.

Machel Montano, like his fellow Trinidadian David Rudder, is one of the leading lights of the genre.

Machel admits to a dream to see soca become a global musical force.

	Sparrow is the uncrowned king of calypso but his subjects are regarded abroad as a subculture

Billboard reported in August that he had yet to make an impact despite collaborations with Wyclef Jean, Busta Rhymes and Shaggy.

The magazine said he'd signed international deals with Delicious Vinyl and Atlantic and recorded two albums which remain unreleased.

Rupee and Kevin Lyttle are also signed with Atlantic but their careers seem to have stalled somewhat.

Rupee has more than once been forced to deny he has been dropped from the label, amid suggestions that interest may have cooled.

--BBC Caribbean.com