Why is Haitian music so bad today? I mean, I'm not that old, but jeez, the Haitian music of today, with only a few rare exceptions, kinda stinks. Some would say that when New Year's Eve 1999 ended, we were ushered into an era of lame Haitian music that we still haven't escaped from today.

I grew up in the 90's and remember listening to the DP, Scorpio, System & Tabou Combo, Coupe Cloue and Les Freres Dejean, Skasha, Ansy Derose, to name a few, with my brothers or my dad. I remember seeing album covers strewn about my brother's bedroom. Albums, not CD's. (If you're a really young reader, albums are like CD's in that they're flat and round, but black, and a lot bigger. The get scratched and don't work just like CD's though).

Some say that the 60's were a turbulent time in Haiti and thus created a perfect environment and culture for innovative and creative music. But let's face it. These days are pretty turbulent as well.

If you think about it, there are only a select few artists or bands that can regularly pack out a bal today.

I recently read an article on another Haitian website that suggested that music and promoters are all worried about bal sales taking a plunge. They realize it's going to be hard to sell out a bal. Who are the promoters of today who will think outside of the box to promote our music and to ensure that our culture stays preserve for future generation?

In a recent in depth analysis of Haitian music as a whole, I came to the conclusion that there is not nearly as much improvisational Kompa and Rasin anymore. If you were to ask someone or anyone what bands he thought were decent these days, I bet you that he would of take him or her a while.

The Haitian music scene not The Haitian Music Industry (come one let’s not kidding ourselves, we don’t have a music industry) itself has changed so drastically that I think that is one of the main reasons there is such a chasm between today's music and the creations of yesteryear.

No longer does the actual music quality drive the scene. Instead, the people with the money notice some bad music selling well to young people for example, and therefore decide that from then on they're only going to find and promote that type of bad music since it made a few bucks. They've totally stopped listening to the music and instead only listen to the dollars.

To save the Haitian Music and perhaps one day we will have an industry, I encourage young and talented new artist and band to go to HMILive.com to promote your music to the mass and bypass those money hungry producers and promoters that are boycotting good music only to make a few bucks.

HMILive.com