For Garifuna culture music and song are central to identity, place and belonging, and are an expression of a unique and continuing tradition. Garifuna music has an important place in the transmission and survival of Garifuna culture.  

There is an intimate relationship between Garifuna language and Garifuna music and between the music and the Dance. Garifuna Music essentially consists of various types of songs that are utilized for different purposes in the culture. The songs are poetry. They capture the history, the values, the aspirations, the concerns, and the deepest feelings of a people who have been kept illiterate in their own language. The songs capture and express the totality of the Garifuna experience and in a sense serve as a literature that is waiting to be committed to writing and translated into other languages for our common benefit.  

The Garifuna music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared Garifuna tradition or set of conventions and includes the following.  

Popular • Punta Rock • Paranda • Mundial • Afri-Garifuna • Garimerican 
Traditional • Hüngühüngü • Punta • Gunchei parranda • Sambai • Chumba