MADEXXXX
MADEART
G
lobalisation, for all its ills, has created
space for meaningful cultural exchange. It
has allowed people from across the world
to be exposed to cultures they might not
otherwise have had access to. This is the
case for South Africa, which has come to
have one of the largest house music scenes
on the globe. Born out of the underground
Chicago late 1980s-night life, as an electro post
disco sound, house music could never have been
anticipated to arrive in the country and resonate
as deeply as it has as the soundtrack to late
apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa.
Johannesburg –the biggest city in the country and
ranked top 10 wealthiest cities on the continent –
is the heart of the hustle. It is no surprise that it is
where house settled before spreading throughout
South Africa. In a time where disco and struggle
music was dominating the airwaves, house
became an outlet for the younger generation
that was optimistic for change. Many South
African house DJs, producers and musicians cite
Frankie Knuckles as their entry into the sound.
DJ Euphonik’s 2003 “Domination” track samples
Nelson Mandela’s “I Am Prepared to Die” speech,
and evoking Frankie Knuckles’s “I Have A
Dream”, which incorporates Martin Luther King’s
speech.
South African DJs took their love for house
music a step further and birthed the sound
known as kwaito today. They slowed down the
usually 120BPM house sound to 100-90BPM,
added more bass and vocals in vernacular
CHICAGO’S
HOUSE LIVES IN
south
africa
languages and managed to create an authentically
South African sound from music that they had
imported. This may have been the only sound
that was ever able to compete with house music
in South Africa. Over the years house remained
resilient as music that did not even need a club
to be heard. The sound is ubiquitous on taxis, in
townships and at taverns.
Experimentation with house music has not
stopped at kwaito. House musicians have also
used jazz influences in the music to produce
soulful sounds. At the forefront of this movement
has been Mi Casa, the house group popular for
incorporating brass sounds into their music. Even
the legendary Hugh Masekela has dabbled in the
genre. On his “Home Brewed” album, celebrated
DJ Black Coffee collaborates with Bra Hugh on
the song “We Are One” and, true to himself, Bra
Hugh brings his trumpet to this optimistic house
record.
Today, a variation of house music called gqom
(“q” is a click sound) – the word “gqomu” is
onomatopoeia for the sound that the African
drum makes – is dominating the party scene
across South Africa. Gqom is heavier on the
drums with rumbling synths and sometimes
features vocals in vernacular languages, such as
isiZulu. This pointing to where the sounds has
emerged from: KwaZulu-Natal province. Three
promising DJs who have taken the gqom scene
by storm are DJ duo Distruction Boyz, Rude
Boyz and the solo act Bhizer.
From beginnings in Chicago, house music now
comfortably lives in South Africa, evolving to suit
the flavour of South Africa, especially as younger
DJs experiment with it and appropriate it for their
context.
MADE BY ESINAKO NDABENI
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