The traditional music of the Federated States of Micronesia varies widely across the four states, and has, in recent times, evolved into
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
influenced by
Europop
Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...
,
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
.
Traditional dances
Traditional dances on the main islands includes "stick dancing" on
Pohnpei,
Chuuk and
Yap
Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micr ...
, standing dances on
Chuuk and sitting dances on Yap
and
Chuuk. The Yapese are particularly known for their skills in dancing. The Yapese stick dance is performed by men, women and children together, while standing dances are performed either by women or men and boys, but never both together. The men participate in various dancing competitions, which are segregated by
caste; the lower castes have some distinct dances, such as a woman's standing dance, but can only dance when authorized by a person of a higher caste.
shares many of the similar dance styles with Yap because of similar cultural heritage with
Chuuk and the outer islands of Yap.
Chuuk's most mysterious and rarest dance is called the "Moonlight Dance", one of the few dances in which both men and women dance together. It can only happen during a full moon with permission of the village chief. Traditionally speaking, this was a way for young males and females to get together.
References
External links
download samples
{{Micronesia-stub