African Music

Recently, most of popular music genres including rock, hip hop, jazz and especially reggae have roots in African music.  "Mbaqanga", one of the most famous traditional music styles in Africa, is discovered in the beginning of 19th century.

Before 1960, the Mbaqanga musicians were actually infamous since black people were discriminated by whites and others. White musicians performed at the TV or radio, but they couldn’t perform like white musicians. Mbaqanga musicians could only live on the street. Therefore, they couldn’t earn money a lot, and most of musicians such as Mahalathini who was one of the most famous Mbaqanga musicians in this era was died with being poor. 

After 1960, Mbaqanga had gradually developed in South Africa by started using Western European musical instruments. Then Mbaqanga style changed to African jazz. Many people were attracted by its sound and rhythm, also many Mbaqanga musicians such as Miriam Makeba, Dolly Rathebe and Letta Mbulu became popular. Eventually, they were able to perform on the TV show.

Even now, some Mbaqanga musicians such as Matehola Queens and Soul Brothers are still working. For example, in 2003, REAL WANDS, which is Norwegian musical group released the album “This is Camping”, was basically used Mbaqanga sound and instruments.

Here is a Youtube link of “THE SOUL BROTHERS”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCLrlRy2-fo

Thank you for visiting!