Cajun/Zydeco

Cajun music, the broad folk style of Southwest Louisiana, was created by diverse people coming together under adverse conditions. French, Creole, Anglo-Irish, and African-American outcasts brought strains of their music together, and over time added fiddles and the German accordion to what had been an A Cappella form. By the 1920's, drums, guitars and Country Blues elements were brought in over the two-step waltz beat of traditional Cajun fais-do-do music. In the '50s, Creoles kept the accordion-based sound of Cajun music but considerably revved it up with highly danceable R&B and their own unique mix of the English and French languages. Queen Ida, a French speaking, bespectacled grandmother, rocks harder on her accordion than the entire roster of a Lollapalooza festival. Creole music and culture also influenced New Orleans R&B and soulful Funk acts such as the Meters and the Neville Brothers. Cajun and Zydeco remained the almost exclusive music of two distinct cultures until the '80s, when America went wild discovering Louisiana's music and food with movies such as The Big Easy and Zydeco acts like Beausoleil. Louisiana culture has produced a musical melting pot that puts the dream of America into actual practice.