This document highlights the increased involvement of “college boys” or
“white college boys” - better-educated middle-class white and light-skinned
persons - in steelbands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Following an
introductory overview of the demography of Trinidad and Tobago, the history of
Carnival, and the interregnum of the temporary instruments used between the ban
of indigenous drums in the 1880s and the invention of the steelpan at the end of
the 1930s, this document will examine the history and membership of these
college boy bands, with particular emphasis on the Hit Paraders. Two factors that
highlight the vital role played by these college boy steelbands are discussed:
commercial sponsorship of bands, and support that bands received from the
People’s National Movement Party. A detailed timeline of steelpan invention and
innovations is also included.