In 1915, the Royal Hawaiian Band was invited to compete at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, winning first place. King David Kalakaua saw these innovations as expressions of Hawaiian pride and was inspired to write the state anthem, “Hawaii Pono’i.” His sister Queen Lili’uokalani was also a talented songwriter, writing “Aloha ‘Oe,” and Royal Hawaiian Bandmaster Henry Berger brought both songs to life. This, and the onset of the steel-guitar – sliding a piece of steel along the strings to give that delayed, dreamy quality of a day at the beach – were instrumental in distinguishing Hawaii’s “sound.” By the mid-1800s, slack-key was on everyone’s front porch. “Slack-key guitar” was dubbed Hawaii’s back-porch music because locals were initially protective of this new style and only shared it amongst families. This loosening, or slackening, of the strings gave them a distinct finger-picking style. Hawaiians used the strumming style of the paniolos as a reference rather than a rule, tuning the guitars the way they saw fit. It was the Portuguese who brought cavaquinho – mini-guitars that served as a precursor to the ukulele. Mexican cowboys, or paniolos, taught Hawaiians how to wrangle cattle and how to play.

European missionaries introduced Christian hymns in the late 1700s, but it was the Portuguese and the Spanish who brought guitars. Laborers were brought in on steamships who brought with them their music. The first major development came with the arrival of immigrants. The melody remained firmly in the chants, the vocals, while instruments provided pace and rhythm, laying the foundation for early Hawaiian music. This ritualistic song and dance would be guided by a small orchestra of gourds, stone castanets, feathered rattles, and bamboo sticks. These chants, paired with the mimetic dance of hula, expressed emotion, charted family genealogy, or told the larger-than-life mythologies of Maui and Pele. Mele, or chanting, was a ritual in ancient Hawaii and a means of preserving their ancestors’ history. Yet, traces of its structure link back to pre-contact Hawaii, long before settlers set foot on Hawaii’s shores. One of the curious things about the Hawaiian language is that there is no word that translates to “music”. Where there’s people, there’s music, and that’s never been truer in the cultural clash of Hawaii. Music is the very fabric of Hawaiian culture, its humble beginnings rooted in the origins of its people and its later evolution sparked by the arrival and influence of others. While Hawaiian music is often soothing and rhythmic, it is so much more than good background.

When the sound of Hawaii comes to mind, one tends to think of the soothing rhythms of the ukulele set to the gentle rustling of waves – background music commonly used in elevators, spas, and tropical-themed occasions.

Hawaii music scene