Music is part of everyday life. We listen to it on the way to work, when we exercise, while running errands; too often in the background. However, music is a unique form of expression that traces history, tradition and culture. Music is the very fabric of Hawaiian culture, its history intertwined through the centuries and evolving into the sound you hear today. European settlers may not have discovered the islands until the 1700s, but Hawaiians discovered the gift of song long before foreigners set foot on Hawaiian shores.
One of the most curious things about the Hawaiian language is that there is no word for “music”, but its structure has been a mainstay of the Hawaiian tradition. Scrum, or chant, was a ritual in ancient Hawaii, a means of preserving ancestral history. These songs told stories of family lineage and legends of Hawaiian gods, tales told visually through the hula dance. The rituals were guided by the rhythm of a drum and a small orchestra of stones, sticks, and rattles, laying the foundation for ancient Hawaiian music.
Contact with European settlers in the 1700s introduced Hawaiians to world cultures. The missionaries brought Christian hymns and various European instruments such as the flute, violin, and piano. But the Hawaiians were more fascinated by the guitar brought by the Spanish cowboys, or handkerchiefs. Hawaiians referred to Spanish music as Cachi-cachi because his fast, improvised style of playing caught on quickly. When the Spanish returned to their home countries, they left their guitars as a gift.
Eager to create their own playing style, the locals began to loosen the strings, creating a distinctive style of finger playing that suited their rhythmic sensibilities. The “Slack-key” guitar became a local fad and encouraged the innovation of another style of playing: the “steel guitar”. This involved sliding a piece of steel across the strings, giving off a relaxing, dreamlike quality that would soon become the sound that would represent Hawaiian music.
These innovations inspired the locals to adopt other forms of instrumentation. The melody held firm to the voice, an emphasis on language and culture, while the sound, as dictated by ancient rituals, provided harmony and support. Many were discovering that they had an innate musical talent and Hawaii quickly gained that talent for an orchestra. In 1915, the Royal Hawaiian Band was invited to compete in the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This was the first time people had heard of Hawaii, a culture and language that expresses itself through song. He painted an exuberant portrait of the islands, an impression that everything is as melodic and polished as the music they performed.
The Royal Hawaiian Band put Hawaiian culture on the map and it was Tau Moe, a family of four also known as “The Aloha Four”, who popularized the steel guitar. They were Hawaii’s own supergroup, touring the continent and then the world. Rhythmic innovations and harmonies born from the island of Hawaii had found a global audience.
The start of the recording made it possible for people to take Hawaii home with them. In the 1920s, “Hawaii Calls” radio programming and live broadcasts of Hawaiian music made people feel like they were really there. Nearly every hotel, the only venues large enough to host bands and orchestras, had radio equipment installed. A band that was entertaining guests was suddenly playing for the world. In the 1950s, Hawaii Calls was broadcast on 750 stations.
Hawaiian music declined in the 1960s. Local musicians like Don Ho and Joe Keawe were still thriving, but artists from the mainland had flooded the scene, having tried their hand at the genre solely because of its popularity. Hawaiian music was in danger of becoming a fad had it not been for the next generation of musicians.
Gabby Pahinui put the emphasis back on culture. A slack-key and falsetto wunderkind, she had found inspiration through tradition. As Hawaiian music became more popular, it became more and more of a style. With the advancement of artists from the continent, the genre refocused on longstanding cultural themes of sovereignty and national pride, thus spearheading a cultural awakening.
Hula was in the midst of a resurgence. The Merrie Monarch Festival, once a tourist parade, has become a celebration of culture as hula groups, or hi, they were now asked to create original chants for their routine. It was a license to create rather than repeat, introducing a new tradition to the festival by honoring those of the past. The Merrie Monarch spawned artists like Keali’i Reichel and The Brothers Cazimero.
This revival marked the beginning of an era of Hawaiian superstars. Sonny Chillingworth and Willie K were revered for their slack-tone prowess, while Linda Dela Cruz and Amy Hanaiali’i Gillom’s falsetto wonder made them overnight sensations. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known simply as Braddah Iz, remains the most renowned Hawaiian musician of all time. His medleys of “Starting All Over Again” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” are in syndication to this day, while “Hawaiian Supa ‘Man” is a fitting mythical representation of his talent and style.
Reggae didn’t come to Hawaii until the 1980s. Initially shunned by traditionalists, reggae’s rhythmic wonder meshed well with similar Hawaiian musical sensibilities. Since then, Hawaii has embraced reggae and the broader Jamaican culture with open arms. The Rastafarian flag is a symbol of national pride along with the state emblem of Hawaii. Reggae and Hawaiian are inseparable on radio today, creating “jawaiian” as a popular and significant subgenre in the canon.
What made Hawaiian music so fundamental was the culture. He made people stop and listen. Hawaiian themes, traditions, and the stories they tell are what define Hawaiian music as a genre. As long as artists are inspired by language and culture, music will remain essential to the world.
