Cajun or Zydeco: What's the Difference?

Is that music you are dancing to Cajun music or Zydeco music? Many people do not know the finer points that distinguish the two types.

Wilfren Latour

Both types share European and African influences, and both styles have been influenced by each other.

According to the book Hé, Là-Bas! by Frieda Fusilier and Jolene Adams (who quote researcher Nicholas Spitzer), Zydeco places more emphasis on complex rhythms and less emphasis on melodic development. Zydeco musicians tend to play fewer waltzes, more fast two-steps, and do not play modern French "country-and-western" style at all. Cajuns are more likely to include a violin (fiddle) and steel guitar (as influenced by "country-and-western" music), and Zydeco bands are more likely to include a "scrub board," or washboard. While this is generally true, because of the influence the two musical styles have had on each other, often the styles will be mixed in any given musical group.

Charlie St. Mary

Both musical styles changed over time as new instruments became available, and because of influences from each other, and the influences from outside forms of music, such as Country music.