History
According to Ambrose Ehirim, a US-based Nigeria specialist, [7] township music dates to the 1950s when it was proscribed by South African police. [8] This has been contradicted by anti-apartheid activist/musician Johnny Clegg, [9] who has claimed that "by the 1960s, the development of mbaqanga hadn't even really started". Mbaqanga (or umbaquanga) has been characterised as urban pop music "with high-pitched, choppy guitar and a powerful bass line" influenced by "funk, reggae, American R&B, soul and drawing on South African Marabi, gospel music". [10] It draws on both kwela and marabi. [11]
Township Jive is closely associated with the development of mbaqanga but is more closely associated with emergent international trends and not as insular and rooted in tradition. [12] Christopher Ballantine traces the "shift from imitating American jazz to localizing the sound with African features. This he connects to the emergence of the ideology of New Africanism". [13] While the international market was absorbing Township Jive under the swirl of commercial activity culminating in the McLaren copyright infringement lawsuit, the subsequent release of BBoys' new album was preferred by a more elite audience closely associated with the black diaspora consciousness movements. [14]
Globalization
The homogenisation of Township Jive with US and UK culture, due to globalisation, is viewed by African artists as a threat to the preservation of their local tradition and credibility. Thus, artists focus on maintaining an emotional link between customer and brand. This explains why transnational corporations are much less interested in homogenising or Americanizing kwaito music because true kwaito represents and dictates South African experience. [15] Americanizing kwaito, as is many artists' opinion, can potentially dilute the substance kwaito was originally based on. [16]
On the upside, critical awareness of TJ has enhanced appreciation of fusion artists and others influenced by its style. For instance, Vibration Bookings bills its artist Nomfusi as a proponent of "a new style where South African Township Jive ("Jaiva") meets Motown". [17] And the Boyoyo Boys have, subsequent to the copyright scandal, signed by Rounder Records which released TJ Today in 1998.
Soweto is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number-one US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".
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, pop music, isicathamiya, gqom, rock music, hip hop and amapiano.
Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1980s. It is a variant of house music that features the use of African sounds and samples. Kwaito songs occur at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music and often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples, deep bass lines, and vocals. Despite its similarities to hip hop music, kwaito has a distinctive manner in which the lyrics are sung, rapped and shouted.
Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s, and blends traditional African vocal styles and melodies with European and American popular music.
Marabi is a style of music that emerged and evolved in South Africa between the 1890s and 1920s.
The Mahotella Queens is a South African female band formed in 1964 by music producer Rupert Bopape, consisting of Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu, and Amanda Nkosi. The group is noted for their distinct vocal harmony sound, guitar-led mbaqanga music, and fast stage dancing.
Tsotsitaal is a South African vernacular dialect derived from a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province, but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa. Tsotsi is a Sesotho, Pedi or Tswana slang word for a "thug" or "robber" or "criminal", possibly from the verb "ho lotsa" "to sharpen", whose meaning has been modified in modern times to include "to con"; or from the tsetse fly, as the language was first known as Flytaal, although flaai also means "cool" or "street smart". The word taal in Afrikaans means "language".
Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens were a South African mbaqanga supergroup made up of the three musical acts linked together by talent scout and record producer Rupert Bopape at the Gallo Recording Company in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1964. The group composed of the following three distinct parts:
Nikele (Nik) Moyake was born on a farm in Addo in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He was a musician who played mbaqanga and jazz.
Jonas Mosa Gwangwa was a South African jazz musician, songwriter and producer. He was an important figure in South African jazz for over 40 years.
Thandiswa Nyameka Mazwai is a South African musician, and is also the lead vocalist and songwriter of Bongo Maffin. She is also known as King Tha. Her debut album Zabalaza (2004), which attained double platinum status and her album also got nominated for Planet Awards on BBC Radio 3.
Township Jazz is any of various music genres created by Bantu peoples living in poor, racially segregated urban areas of South Africa ("townships") during the 20th century.
"Mannenberg" is a Cape jazz song by South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim, first recorded in 1974. Driven into exile by the apartheid government, Ibrahim had been living in Europe and the United States during the 1960s and '70s, making brief visits to South Africa to record music. After a successful 1974 collaboration with producer Rashid Vally and a band that included Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen, Ibrahim began to record another album with these three collaborators and a backing band assembled by Coetzee. The song was recorded during a session of improvisation, and includes a saxophone solo by Coetzee, which led to him receiving the sobriquet "Manenberg".
Gideon "Mgibe" Nxumalo [] was a South African jazz pianist and marimba player, acclaimed also as a composer and arranger. Nxumalo has been hailed as "perhaps one of South Africa's greatest unsung musical and cultural heroes."
Tofo Tofo Dance Group is made up of three Mozambican men who integrated kwaito music and pantsula dance, which originates from South Africa, to create their own unique type of dance that has become internationally celebrated. This new form of movement has brought local African dance onto a global stage.
Pantsula is a tradition and also a highly energetic dance form that originated in the black townships of South Africa during the apartheid era. It developed into a form of social commentary for black South Africans and has undergone several transformations with the country's changing political tides.
"Soweto Blues" is a protest song written by Hugh Masekela and performed by Miriam Makeba. The song is about the Soweto uprising that occurred in 1976, following the decision by the apartheid government of South Africa to make Afrikaans a medium of instruction at school. The uprising was forcefully put down by the police, leading to the death of between 176 and 700 people. The song was released in 1977 as part of Masekela's album You Told Your Mama Not to Worry. The song became a staple at Makeba's live concerts, and is considered a notable example of music in the movement against apartheid.
Renaissance is the second studio album by the South African quartet the Soweto String Quartet, released in October 1996 by BMG Records. It follows the national and international success of their debut album Zebra Crossing (1994), and was produced by Grahame Beggs. As with their previous album, Renaissance blends classical music with African pop and folk music, while also exploring new textures, with styles on the album including marabi, kwela and worldbeat. Quartet member Reuben Khemse described the album's themes as reawakening, revival and the dawn of new eras.
Mbaqanga is an album by the South African musical group Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, released in 1991 and in the US in 1992. The group supported the album with a North American tour.
