Chief judge Josephine Taurell, in a telephone interview on Sunday night, said that the trend shows that composers and producers experimented with various genres in some of the songs presented for judging.
She said the five judges were "very satisfied with the day's proceedings" after they listened to over 150 of pre-recorded tracks at the Queen's Park Oval, in Port-of-Spain.
"We have the African rhythm coming in, we have the horns coming back in. The variety in terms of the arrangement of the songs are coming back," Taurell said.
She said there were few songs which had double meanings but they were not offensive songs.
Asked about the quality of this year's songs, she said: "As you know, it is a very short season. Secondly, the uncertainty of soca monarch happening, so by the time the announcement was made to the time for registration, the time was short, that would have affected the number of participants."
What is clear, she said, is that the prize money would not prevent anyone from participating because, "soca monarch is the place to be if you want to be recognised, if you want to make a contribution to the cultural artform of soca-international soca monarch is the place to be."
This year's winner will collect a $300,000 cash prize, a reduction from last year's $500,000 prize. The second and third place winner will collect $200,000 and $150,000 respectively.
On Tuesday, the semifinalists will draw for appearance and they will perform in the forecourt of the Queen's Park Savannah on Thursday.
The event organisers said the finalists would be announced on Friday.
They will perform on Fantastic Friday, February 9, The Hasely Crawford stadium at 8 pm.
