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The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

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Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#31

Post by exolymph »

chrisdhoover wrote: post #23
uhoh-itsmaciek wrote: post #18

American country music has been heavily influenced by African Americans since the beginning (often without recognition, though that's starting to change.) The banjo is based on African instruments, and many musicians like Huddie Ledbetter, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Arnold Shultz, and DeFord Bailey helped shape the genre. It's great to see this popularity in Africa--in a weird way, it's almost like comi…

Maybe there was some cross pollination but the progenitors of country were the hillbilly folk music now now as bluegrass that is rooted in English, Scottish and Irish folk music. Banjos were adopted later, the original form was fiddle based.

All of the above. Country is heavily influenced by African American gospel and blues, but also the hillbilly roots you described. It's a fusion genre and that's beautiful.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#33

Post by dendrite9 »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #21

Another interesting African music genre: Desert Blues [1], which mostly comes out of the Western Sahara. I like this example (Title: Tinariwen (+IO:I) - Ténéré Tàqqàl (what has become of the Ténéré) ) [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_blues [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boiiiVh52v4

I was introduced to this music in 2009 or so and it's been a consistent part of my musical diet since then. I remember reading the blog post about Music from Saharan Cellphones and the method of getting the songs. I found this relevant comment on the Sahel Sounds post from 2010:

"In the effort of cultural exchange, I traded for a few Townes Van Zandt albums; we’ll see if they’ve survived next time I’m back in Kidal." https://sahelsounds.com/2010/10/tracklist-from-music-from-sa...

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#34

Post by onepointsixC »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #28
RajT88 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one that really threw me is that American country music is very popular in France. I have never been, so naturally I am sure my view of the place and the people is skewed.

It is my understanding that the American country music industry employs much more specialization of labor (e.g. performers / lyricists / composers are all different people) than other American genres, so I generally expect the quality to be higher. My sister and I both love country music. My dad is very vocal about how much he hates it, but his reasons have nothing to do with the quality of the music - they are purel…

>But I suspect that overseas they are more likely to view country music through the same lens as "America", having no specific concept of "despicable Southerners".

I think you're going to find that the rest of the world is going to have much more commonality in social cultural viewpoints of the American South than with California.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#35

Post by Jerrrry »

exolymph wrote: post #31
chrisdhoover wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe there was some cross pollination but the progenitors of country were the hillbilly folk music now now as bluegrass that is rooted in English, Scottish and Irish folk music. Banjos were adopted later, the original form was fiddle based.

All of the above. Country is heavily influenced by African American gospel and blues, but also the hillbilly roots you described. It's a fusion genre and that's beautiful.

But the "stolen without attribution" claim paints it negatively for little reason.

African Americans contributed; nothing was "stolen," as romantic of an idea to the chronically-oppressed may oppose.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#36

Post by thaumasiotes »

onepointsixC wrote: post #34
thaumasiotes wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is my understanding that the American country music industry employs much more specialization of labor (e.g. performers / lyricists / composers are all different people) than other American genres, so I generally expect the quality to be higher. My sister and I both love country music. My dad is very vocal about how much he hates it, but his reasons have nothing to do with the quality of the music - they are purel…

>But I suspect that overseas they are more likely to view country music through the same lens as "America", having no specific concept of "despicable Southerners". I think you're going to find that the rest of the world is going to have much more commonality in social cultural viewpoints of the American South than with California.

But that doesn't matter if they can't tell the difference between California and the South in the first place.

Another commenter in this thread mentions the popularity of country music in France, which would appear to be more on the California end of things.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#37

Post by corrral »

chrisdhoover wrote: post #23
uhoh-itsmaciek wrote: post #18

American country music has been heavily influenced by African Americans since the beginning (often without recognition, though that's starting to change.) The banjo is based on African instruments, and many musicians like Huddie Ledbetter, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Arnold Shultz, and DeFord Bailey helped shape the genre. It's great to see this popularity in Africa--in a weird way, it's almost like comi…

Maybe there was some cross pollination but the progenitors of country were the hillbilly folk music now now as bluegrass that is rooted in English, Scottish and Irish folk music. Banjos were adopted later, the original form was fiddle based.

IIRC from a book I read on the blues, banjos had some early traction in and were introduced by blues music because they were indeed derived from West African instruments (built around gourds, complete with one shorter string like a banjo has) but the updated, new-world construction of the modern banjo (twangy, poor sustain) was better-suited to accompanying higher-pitched white voices, so ended up falling out of favor in the blues about the same time it was becoming standard in genres like bluegrass.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#38

Post by eastof »

guelo wrote: post #25
betwixthewires wrote: post #9

A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant melodies and simple to follow rhythms.…

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide Sorry I'm very skeptical about this claim. According to the recording industry's annual report Pop music continues to dominate and Country is not in the top 10 https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IFPI-Engagin... (page 15) Also, as a city dweller, why do people like you constantly attack us about everything? That feeling of…

Most country music is pop music. Also I'm skeptical of the list you linked because 80's and 90's isn't a genre.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#39

Post by yawboakye »

American country music buff here. Until recently Ghanaian music was mostly about the lyrics—it was impossible to make music that didn’t have great lyrics about love, life, work, religion, you name it. Music was a great instructor in traditional values. For lovers of the old music American country music fits right in since it’s probably the only(?) music export from the US that doesn't glorify crime, debauchery, all the non-traditional African values. I've lost count of the number of times music lyrics have suggested themselves in critical times for me: when apologizing, showing appreciation, expressing love, offering consolation, offering encouragement, you name it.

Re: The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa

#40

Post by lelandfe »

dendrite9 wrote: post #33
jamal-kumar wrote: post #21

Another interesting African music genre: Desert Blues [1], which mostly comes out of the Western Sahara. I like this example (Title: Tinariwen (+IO:I) - Ténéré Tàqqàl (what has become of the Ténéré) ) [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_blues [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boiiiVh52v4

I was introduced to this music in 2009 or so and it's been a consistent part of my musical diet since then. I remember reading the blog post about Music from Saharan Cellphones and the method of getting the songs. I found this relevant comment on the Sahel Sounds post from 2010: "In the effort of cultural exchange, I traded for a few Townes Van Zandt albums; we’ll see if they’ve survived next time I’m back in Kidal."…

https://sahelsoundscompilations.bandcamp.com/

Sahel's Bandcamp is full of such compilations! Including the recently released "Music from Saharan WhatsApp" https://sahelsoundscompilations.bandcamp.com/album/music-fro...

These little vignettes into music communities brings me a lot of joy.

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