The definition of the Zouk genre is better given by Brenda Berrian on Music and Culture in the French Caribbean looking at the band at the origin of the genre. She says that the band Kassav’ not only ‘invented the music zouk. Brenda recalls the band saying that “they wanted to invent a music that would capture not just the Caribbean, but the entire world. They wanted to reach out to the entire world, that to them was very important. They said, we’re from little islands and we’re not going to be narrowed into saying it’s a Guadeloupean band or a Martinican band. We’re going to cover both the islands and Africa, as well as the mainland, because that’s our history.
References
http://www.afropop.org/multi/interview/ID/147/Brenda+Berrian+on+Music+and+Culture+in+the+French+Caribbean-+PART+2