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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

#121

Post by rufus_foreman »

quacked wrote: post #117
rufus_foreman wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't see what the difference is between Cash and Gang Starr's Just to get a Rep. Here's where it ends up, that's the story and that's the song. There's some bragodoccio in it, both Cash and Gang Starr. Just to get a Rep is a morality play.

Yes, that would be a clever comparison, if that's the sort of hip-hop that's become popular internationally. How about Cash and a modern rapper that people today have actually heard of, as the original commenter is talking about? Please, go to WorldStar and grab one of the top songs and then try to equate Folsom Prison Blues with it. As a matter of fact, I'll start. Here's "Holy Ghost" by Future, one of the most popu…

>> Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me

What's your problem with that lyric?

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

#122

Post by cjohnson318 »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #91
paulpauper wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives in a city, shitting on country music is not something that has ever crossed my mind

I've seen it. I've also seen people talk down classical, disco and a few other genres at various points in my life. It seems there's always an uncool genre of the day. Which is a shame as people are simply limiting themselves.

Different eras of country music have different themes, values and styles, just like jazz and rock. That said, I heard some country music last weekend with a trap beat straight out of Outkast's Stankonia and it was... disconcerting.

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

#123

Post by grapeskin »

quacked wrote: post #118
grapeskin wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hip hop isn’t all top 20 pop hits. I’d hope country fans also wouldn’t want their genre being judged solely by what’s being churned on the radio.

Perhaps not, but it's extremely telling that most popular hip-hop songs almost all contain explicit claims that the artist committed many violent felonies, loves committing them, and will commit them again, whereas people have to dig in country music for examples of the artist claiming that they themselves actually killed or hurt someone, and when they find those examples they're always obviously playing a character.…

Literally the only modern country I hear on the radio involves being drunk and cheating on and fighting with your woman.

Comparing certified classics of any genre from half a century ago to slop churned out today, ignoring the fact most of it will be forgotten and new classics will rise up, is weird.

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

#124

Post by Herodotus38 »

adfjalkfja wrote: post #94

There's so much terrible country music out there that I admit put me off. But lately I've been listening to Townes Van Zandt and well... my god

If you like Townes Van Zandt you might like Jimmie Dale Gilmore as well. You may find the first songs by Gilmore too polished if you like the realism of Van Zandt's live recordings, as I think I probably would if I had discovered Gilmore later, but listen to "Dallas" or "Tonight I think I'm gonna go downtown" to get a sense of his good lyrics in my opinion. Happy to see someone else like Townes Van Zandt!

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

#125

Post by Biologist123 »

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

Loved that, thanks!

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

#126

Post by jzellis »

Oh, man. So almost a decade ago I'm in Kampala, Uganda, staying in Muyenga, a neighborhood on the hillside above Lake Victoria. I've bought an adungu, a local instrument that's a sort of harp shaped like a sailboat. I bring it back to the apartment building I'm staying in and I start trying to figure out how to tune it and play it. Turns out it's generally tuned to chromatic C, so you can play anything that's in C or Am or G maybe, if it's simple.

The security guard for the apartments wanders over to where I'm sitting outside. I'm kind of playing whatever easy stuff I can figure out in C, like "No Woman No Cry" or whatever. He's sort of smiling and nodding the way people do when you're playing an instrument.

Then he says, out of the blue, "Do you know... Kenny Rogers?"

I'll be real honest with you, this is not a thing I'm expecting from a Ugandan dude.

"Yeah," I said, "sure."

"Do you know... 'The Gambler'?"

I allowed as how I was familiar with the composition in question. I Googled the lyrics and started playing it.

I have had a lot of weird moments in my life, but sitting on an apartment stoop in Uganda, watching a big electrical storm riding in over Lake Victoria, with this antelope hide ass harp thing, singing "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em" while this little Ugandan security guard dude in a uniform delightedly sang along, clapping to the beat, may be the weirdest and most awesome one. <3

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

#127

Post by guelo »

EarlKing wrote: post #99
guelo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Uh huh. From the paper reference: > The study was carried out amongst a demographically representative sample of the online population aged 16-64 in the following territories: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. The study was also conducted in China and India b…

I googled a bunch, the highest I've seen Country listed is 4th globally, usually much lower. It's obvious to me that betwixthewires just made up his stat because he wanted to make a dumb point about clueless city dwellers.

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

#128

Post by eru »

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.…

Which parts of south east Asia? I mostly hear the same kinds of pop songs here in Singapore as they are playing on the radio in Europe.

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

#129

Post by synu »

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.…

Here in the Netherlands they love country music, both modern and older styles. I'm not sure what the connection is, but there was a local city-wide battle of the bands sort of thing here in my home town and _every_ band was playing bluegrass type music.

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

#130

Post by kube-system »

mrwnmonm wrote: post #88

Off-topic: I never understood why native English speakers use Sahara and desert and think they are different things. Sometimes they even say "Sahara desert".

The same reason English speakers often say “chai tea”.

They speak English, not Arabic or Hindi, and those words haven’t been turned into loan words. Likely, because English has its own equivalent.

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