Folk and Fantasy: Colonial Imaginations of Caribbean Culture in Mid-Century Calypso Album Cover Art

Abstract

This article explores the reflections of Caribbean culture found in mid-century calypso album cover art. Calypso cover art offers important documentations of Caribbean folk life and cultural identity pre-independence, but at the same time, facilitate the exportation of colonial fantasies about local life to attract tourists. The images examined invariably construct Caribbean islands as “places to play” (Sheller, 2003) and its people as carefree and even childish natives. We use semiotics and critical visual analysis to analyze mid-century record album cover characterizations of the primordial rhythm of folk life and caricatures of native culture, as well as the ways touristic esthetics adapted Calypso, including the figure of the Coconut Woman, as a soundtrack for colonial fantasies and fuel for the colonial gaze. This article reveals how minor, even peripheral, objects such as Calypso records promoted as fun and festive consumer goods reveal powerful, yet relatively unnoticed, insights into visual communication.