The South African music scene includes both popular (jive) and folk forms like Zulu isicathamiya singing and harmonic mbaqanga. Other popular genres are Marabi, Kwaito, house music, Isicathamiya, Gqom, rock music, hip hop and Amapiano.
NuL is a South African band formed in 1998 by Adriaan Pelzer and Simon Kruger, operating as NuL since 2004. NuL creates Afrikaans EBM/Industrial music, and propagates the free distribution of their music. Apart from conventional CD sales, they distribute all of their music freely on the internet, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license. The music is seeded directly from their website. They also encourage fans on their website to pirate their CD by making the CD artwork of their first CD available as free downloads.
Fokofpolisiekar is an Afrikaans alternative rock band from Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. Due to the obscenity in the name, they are also commonly known simply as Polisiekar or FPK.
Oppikoppi was a music festival held in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the mining town of Northam. The festival started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag of genres. Anything from jazz, world music, house music, acoustic, comedy and all else in between can be heard on one of the multiple stages. Each year in the first week of August — except for 2017, when the festival was held in October — thousands of people used to flock to the farm to camp out in the bush and enjoy the music for several days. The festival features mostly South African bands, although international acts are included in the line-up.
Riku Lätti is a South African singer, songwriter and writer. After Riku matriculated in 1991 at Hoërskool Florida, Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, he studied philosophy at University of the Witwatersrand where he finished his honours degree. He changed his name to Victor S. Wolf and claimed that Riku Latti is "dead". Since then he composed the complete film score for Jans Rautenbach's film "Abraham" on which he was credited as Riku Lätti, thereby being effectively resurrected.
Kobus! is an Afrikaans extreme metal band formed in 2000 by ex-Springbok Nude Girls guitarist Theo Crous and ex-Voice of Destruction vocalist Francois Breytenbach Blom. They performed as a duo until 2004 when they were joined by Rob Nel on bass and Paul André Blom on drums.
Lark are a South African glitch electronica band from Cape Town. Formed in 2003, the group consists of Inge Beckmann (vocals), Paul Ressel, Simon "Fuzzy" Ratcliffe, and Sean Ou Tim. They are often cited as "groundbreaking musicians", who were the key contributors to establishing experimental and intelligent dance music in South Africa. Their name has become synonymous with musical experimentalism, and are one of the country's best loved acts. Lark has released 3 studio albums, and won a SAMA for their debut album, Razbliuto!. Their music videos have been consistently met with admiration for their technically ability, and have received two MK Awards.
Foto Na Dans was a five piece Afrikaans progressive rock band from Bellville, South Africa, fronted by singer/songwriter Le-Roi Nel. Other band members are Neil Basson, John Havemann (bass), Alex Fourie, and Dirkie Uys (drums).
Straatligkinders is an Afrikaans rock band from Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Ashton Nyte is a South African-born singer, songwriter, producer, composer, author, actor, and frontman of the gothic rock band The Awakening. Nyte has released seven solo albums, in addition to eleven albums as The Awakening and several other projects and collaborations. He is considered to be a pioneer of alternative music in South Africa, and has been described as "something of a musical genius" for his typical method of composing, playing and recording each instrument himself on most of his releases. Nyte is widely known in South Africa for his chart-topping cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" and several other top singles. His signature style combines baritone vocals, garnering comparisons to David Bowie and Johnny Cash, with instrumentation that ranges from lyric-driven acoustic folk, to alternative rock, to post-punk and electronic music, as well as a penchant for the theatrical. Nyte has been based in the US since 2009.
Mind Assault is a heavy metal band formed in 2003, that first emerged in October 2004 under the name Mind Assault. Their members are based in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa. They were the first extreme metal band to use their native language Afrikaans in their music, maintaining a balanced use of Afrikaans and English in their music. This language usage results from a re-emerging consciousness among young Afrikaans people through alternative sub-cultures, reflected by bands such as Fokofpolisiekar and Kobus!, which results from a closer observation of their own cultural heritage.
Thys Nywerheid is an alternative rock music project from Pretoria, South Africa. The band's name is a wordplay on the Afrikaans name for Home Industry. The music is a mixture of both Afrikaans and English but it leans predominantly towards the former. Thys Nywerheid is generally regarded by South African music critics as being one of the pioneers in alternative Afrikaans music and is renowned for fusing electronic and rock music and also for their thought provoking and satirical lyrics. They are also one of few rock bands that employs a full-time turntablist.
MaxNormal.TV was a South African music group that formed in 2001 and eventually evolved into Die Antwoord. The group's name was taken from a comic book character in the Judge Dredd comic of the same name.
Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK) was a hip-hop group from the Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa. They rapped predominantly in the Cape Flats dialect of Afrikaans. The original line-up included Deon Daniels (Boeta-D), Roger Heunis (Hamma), Ashley Titus and Enver Pietersen. Bboys Cheeze, Baby-L and Levi joined the group soon after they started to perform live.
MoShang is a downtempo musician and music producer originally from South Africa. He is referred to as the Sound Jeweler and has been living in Taiwan since 2003.
Andre van Rensburg is a South African avant-garde composer, producer and instrumentalist living in Tokyo, Japan. Van Rensburg is a prolific artist with dozens of credits as composer, performer and producer.
Matthew van der Want is a South African singer, songwriter and recording artist.
Beast is a garage rock supergroup from Cape Town. Formed in 2012, the band consists of Inge Beckmann (vocals) of Lark, Louis Nel and Rian Zietsman of Taxi Violence, and Werner von Waltsleben (drums) of Kobus!. BEAST's sound has been self-described as "psychological rock and roll" and a "four-nippled aberration".
Eden is a South African pop band. Originally made up of Jay, Paulo, Johan, and Sean, the band debuted during the popular South African Aardklop Festival followed by a tour all over South Africa releasing their album In in 1997. After Sean Else left in 2006, the boy band continued as a trio. Since 2003, the band has released three more albums, Point of No Return (2003), Eden (2006) and Knieë Lam (2008), a live DVD Live at The Mardi Gras (2008) and a compilation album Dekade (2009). They are signed to Coleske Artists.
Bittereinder is a South African rap/electro band from Pretoria who perform in Afrikaans. Jaco van der Merwe, Peach van Pletzen, and Louis Minnaar founded the three-man band in 2009, and have since performed at major South African festivals such as Oppikoppi, across southern Africa, and the Netherlands. They are known for their high-energy performances.
