In the Caribbean island country of Trinidad and Tobago, a thriving new musical tradition emerged from the scrap heap of the oil industry during the Second World War. It was around this time that young islanders began to transform discarded 55-gallon oil barrels into "tunable" percussive instruments with a revolutionary new sound.
Some people credit famed steel drummaker, Ellie Mannette, with the idea of "tuning" the bottom of a steel drum so that it can produce a wide range of musical notes. Today, a full orchestra consists of about 25 such drums -- known locally as "pans ." The pan musicians, playing by ear with incredible precision, perform everything from calypso to European classics.
Rattles, drums, and scrapers are all designed to make sounds and keep the beat. For centuries, percussion makers from Africa to the Americas have made such instruments from natural materials like gourd, hide, shell, bone, pebbles and bark. In the 20th century, common Euro-American cast-offs -- tin cans, plastic buckets, eating utensils, metal pipes, brake drums, and pot lids -- have been adapted by folk musicians for percussive music-making.
Not all members of traditional communities are necessarily happy with the change in volume, or quality, of the resultant recycled sound. For example, the ceremonial use of bean and food can rattles by Native American dancers in the southwestern United States has been criticized by some of the elders who insist that tradition disallows the use of such materials.
In our nation's capital, however, banging on trash can lids and plastic
buckets has been developed to a hip new musical form by a group of streetwise
black youth who perform everywhere from the subway steps to the Smithsonian
stage.