31 March, 2011 - Published 09:16 GMT

Arts and Culture

As well as covering the news, BBC Caribbean also reflected the arts and culture of the Caribbean and its diaspora.

The programme BBC Caribbean Magazine, originally a weekly programme broadcast in the 1970s and 80s by the BBC's then Topical Tapes department came into the BBC Caribbean stable of programmes in the 1990s.

It became part of the Caribbean stream to the region and its diaspora and explored the human face of the news.

Death of an icon

The death of Gregory Isaacs and BBC Caribbean breaking the news meant that people around the world turned to the Caribbean Service to express their grief over the death of the reggae icon.

BBC Caribbean Magazine reflected this in a special programme broadcast during the week of his death.

From Russia to America's west coast, tributes poured in for Isaacs.

Passa passa/ Dutty wine

The dance craze known as dutty wine, often performed at passa passa fetes or parties saw young people dancing in sexually suggestive ways.

Some doctors said the acrobatic dancing was actually dangerous.

BBC Caribbean went to find out and explored the story afterwards in an online forum which saw responses pouring in from across the Caribbean and its diaspora.

Sparrow flies in

When calypso legend Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) flew into Bush House for an interview, we knew we were in for a great time.

In his usual lively style, he hugged up interviewer Debbie Ransome and another woman in the studio and belted out a rendition of his saucy calypso 'Both of Dem'.

During the interview, he shared his views on modern soca, the speedy derivative of calypso.

Music and guns

BBC Caribbean programming often reflected on the link between music and gun crime in the Caribbean.

When the downtown Kingston area of Tivoli Gardens literally exploded into violence against authority, BBC Caribbean's teams in London and Jamaica explained the origins of the gang culture.

Sport and music

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 brought global attention to the Jamaican athletic side.

The team broke records, took medals and returned home heroes.

So what lay behind their success, BBC Caribbean asked them about their music choices while training.

Arrow - a life well lived

Known outside of the Caribbean for his global hit 'Hot, Hot, Hot', soca star Arrow was known within the Caribbean also for his ability to take regional forms of music and merge them into exciting rhythms.

In an interview with BBC Caribbean in 2006, Alphonsus Cassell spoke about his full-time twin jobs of keeping an eye on his copyright and providing a business lead for post-volcano Monterrat.

His death in 2010 led to tributes from across the region with top performers flying to Montserrat to mark his passing with a truly Caribbean party.

Bob Marley

The life of Bob Marley featured many times in the BBC Caribbean output.

When one of Bob Marley's former girlfriends Esther Anderson visited BBC Caribbean, she celebrated how Marley's music went global.

She spoke about the start of Island records and delivering records by hand to potential distributors.

Belize's world music star

When Belizean musician Andy Palacio died in 2008, he was mourned as a world music cultural icon.

His music made the award listings in the 2000s always to critical aclaim.

During his life, Andy Palacio was passionate about his Garifuna people.

In 2008, Andy Palacio outlined the history of the Garifuna people and how they came to Belize from St Vincent.

Music nostalgia

Often, BBC Caribbean would look back on older music forms in the region.

Caribbean rhythms and bands and band leaders who played a leading role in making some rhythms household tunes came under the spotlight.

In 2008, Mike Jarvis looked back at the bands, household names, and party favourites across the region from reggae, to soca and calypso, spouge and cadence.

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