Hawaiian Music is lovely music, commonly known in the Beautiful Islands of Hawaii. Hawaiian music is a very unique genre. Some places have never heard of Hawaiian music. But in Hawaii, Hawaiian music is very popular. It is heard all over the island, the radio, on TV, and in some local events. But one day Hawaiian Music will be known all over the world.
Hawaiian Music is unique because it came from religious Hawaiian chants and hymns. Hawaiian music began in about the mid 1800s, which was also the beginning of visitors coming to Hawaii. People coming in to Hawaii, brought instruments like the violin, guitar, ukulele, and flute. With this Native Hawaiians mixed their chants and hymns with the instruments and sound with the immigrants and missionaries.
Early Mexican cowboys that came to Hawaii brought their guitars and taught the Hawaiians how to play them in a Spanish style. Because of this, many native Hawaiians became fans of the guitar. This became the cause to the slack key guitar. The slack key guitar was a style of finger picking and it also was tuned to match certain traditional songs and chants. Some popular artists that used the slack key guitar, was Keola Beamer, Raymond Kane, Leonard Kwan and many others.
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s another genre became evolved, which was Jawaiian. Jawaiian is a Hawaiian style of Reggae. In the early 1980s, ethnic Hawaiians and other people in the state started playing a mixture of reggae and local music. In Hawaii, reggae became very popular. Many locals became big fans of reggae. Locals can be seen with Bob Marley merchandise. Bob Marley is one of the most famous reggae artists. Some popular Jawaiian Bands are Ho’aikane, O-shen, and Rebel Souljahz.
As you can see, Hawaiian Music rooted from Hawaiian chants and hymns. From that Hawaiian music has changed a lot, not just because of the Hawaiians but the foreigners, immigrants and missionaries that came to Hawaii. Hawaiian music today is more diverse with different ethnic groups having an impact on it. Without these international influences, we wouldn’t have the music we have now in Hawaii.
