By the 1940s, the big bands were the norm. Compas was born circa 1955 with the help of Nemours Jean Baptiste who with his saxophone lead his band and coined the phrase "konpa Direk". Among the music and dances that developed in the wake of the dominant African styles was the Haitian Compas, much like the Dominican merengue though with a melodic sense that gives it a feel similar to early 20th-century ragtime music.

Compas, the popular music of Haiti, lays claim to a particular authenticity by virtue of having originated in a place where African slaves successfully rebelled against their overlords and achieved independence. The quaint social dancing styles favored by Haiti's former colonizers (particularly the French) were infused with Haiti's native rhythms

The definition of compas music has broadened over the years, but it can be aptly described as a music in which Haiti's African and European roots converge in a polyrhythmic whole with the rhythmic grooves always at the forefront regardless of whatever other refinements or fusions may be present.