Music in Guyana

Guyana's  musical heritage is as rich and diverse as its ethical construct. The Africans, Amerindians, Portuguese, Chinese, Europeans and East Indians have all made their input The East Indians are perhaps the most influential and popular with their music and this may be due to historical factors which allowed this race of people to preserve their culture as opposed to the Africans for example who lost a significant degree of theirs to the Triangle Slave Trade. As a consequence, the slave’s music was also rendered in Creole giving rise to folk songs such as “Bamboo Fyah” and “Small Days” which are usually accompanied by heavy rhythmic drumming and are popular at the traditional “Que- que” or “Cock-Ah-Lay” celebrations.
Guyana has improved over the years from having no recording music studio to having several. The quality of some of these studios has improved significantly so much that Guyana telephone & telegraph company (GT&T) uses one of the local studios to do their  radio and television advertisements and promotions. Their business competitors run local competitions in dance and singing and have even produced a singer, Timeka Marshall, who is still presently having her voice heard at an international level.We have alot of other local artistes that contribute to Guyana's music.

However a tourist would have noticed the amount of “push-carts” around the country selling “pirated” music. This social phenomenon in the music industry of Guyana robs Guyanese artistes of their deserved royalties of their music and the copyright law  need to be amended and strict penalties should be issued to the person who engages in this illegal practice.