Why Isn't Soca Bigger?

I was watching an episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (don’t judge me) and one of the characters starting singing Harry Belafonte’s Day-O. This started me thinking. That song and the accompanying album, Calypso, were huge in the mid 1950’s, popularizing a form of proto-calypso throughout the US and Europe. Which means that a decade before ska (which I will describe as proto-reggae) had reached an international audience, calypso had made that leap.

Why then has reggae in its many forms become an international industry of its own and calypso and its derivatives have rarely experienced similar popularity? Yes there are exceptions: Hot Hot Hot by Arrow; Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle and Tempted to Touch by Rupee (which were really the same song); Differentology by Bungie recently got some attention. Plus I will argue with anyone that cares to that Late in the Evening by Paul Simon is calypso at its best. Then there is this creature people are calling Tropical House which, at a stretch, is essentially a soca fusion but the less said about that by me the better.

I’m sure there are other examples of calypso making an international impact but the point I’m making is even with the head start the genre had in the 1950’s, it lags so far behind reggae in the international consciousness it’s like it isn’t even in the same race.

But why?

Is the subject matter in the lyrics being un-relatable to international audiences? That doesn’t explain the success of Hot Hot Hot or Differentology. Or Day-O for that matter. Plus remakes of calypso tracks like Rum and Coca Cola by the Andrews Sisters, Hot Hot Hot by Buster Poindexter and Who Let the Dogs Out by Baha Men were crafted using most of the original lyrics and were all hits.

Is it the lack of a charismatic ambassador for the genre like reggae had in Marley? Or an "acceptable" representative like Sean Paul? I’d say Machel ticks those boxes.

So what is it?