The Social Function Of Caribbean Music In Transnational And Cross-cultural Scenarios

Since the beginning of the 20 th century the Caribbean people moved to the US frequently and formed their own immigrant community and set up a new way of life and transnational social network for their survival and development. The correlation between Caribbean music and the local music in the US is a typical case on the mutual effect and mutual fusion between the minority culture the mainstream culture in the US. During the course of dealing with social-cultural conflict and social-cultural acculturation the Caribbean music has showed two social functions. One of them is a symbol to express cultural difference, form the community boundary and unite them. The Caribbean music not only expresses the Caribbean people?s homesick mood but also shows the difference between the Caribbean people and the local communities of the US and the process of integration between them. The other function is to be a special communication media, then becomes a series of special cultural exchange mechanism in the process of exchange with mainstream music culture of the US and is identified as an important part and one of the characteristics of the music cultural in the US.This thesis tries to research the music culture and music life of the Caribbean Diaspora Community in the US from transnational and cross-cultural perspectives. The author argues that the Caribbean music has played an important role for the Caribbean-American to express themselves, build friendly relationships with other communities and build a transnational life space for them. On the other hand, the Caribbean music is a special and useful medium of cross-cultural exchange and has become one of the characteristics of the US music culture.