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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

#131

Post by bergenty »

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.…

What are you talking about. American classical rock is popular the world over, especially the stuff from the 60s and 70s. No one listens to what Americans refer to as country music. Definitely not in the Middle East, India or Latin America.

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

#132

Post by bergenty »

Jerrrry wrote: post #35
exolymph wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No one said stolen. Both GPs used the term influenced.

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

#134

Post by Ancapistani »

nateberkopec wrote: post #89
yawboakye wrote: post #39

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 t…

If I get stoned, I’m just carrying on an old family tradition.

I’ll raise you his son’s words:

    Because I'm drinkin', druggin': I'm havin' lots of fun
    I always carry round my loaded shotgun
    If I think I'm gonna have a bad time
    I got a little bit of smoke an' a whole lotta wine
Or better yet:

    Well, there's blood on the carpet an' holes in the walls 
    Well, it must've been them pills I took 
    Yeah, the mirrors are all busted an' someone's cryin' 
    It must've been them pills I took

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

#135

Post by shellfishgene »

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

Still one of my favourite "music videos": https://vimeo.com/83776166 (unfortunately need to login to Vimeo to view). Music from Mali ist really nice.

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

#136

Post by unmole »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #105
unmole wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American country music is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide [citation needed] > even India Yeah, no. Unless you are using a very liberal definition of popular . American music is a niche in India and country music is a niche within a niche. Rock, pop and hip-hop are far more popular.

I sat in a Pizza Hut in CP Delhi loudly playing country music. American songs play on everybody’s instagram stories. Not super niche.

And I sat in a chain coffee shop in Hyderabad that played the Brandenburg Concertos in a loop. I still wouldn't claim there's a Bach Revival underway in India.

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

#137

Post by jinto36 »

paulpauper wrote: post #59
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.…

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

There are many repetitive lyrical themes that seem to be associated with particular genres, and personal preferences associated thereof. I feel like country used to have more variety- my father used to listened to it- but it's kind of coalesced into "I drank a bottle of whiskey and cried in my pickup truck when you left me" which isn't really my thing. Whereas I'm kind of ok with every power metal song being some variation of "fire! dragons! swords!". The things that aren't really stand out though, such as Kamelot's concept albums Epica and The Black Halo, which are based on Faust. There's also Van Canto which is a rather impressive German a capella power metal band (with a live drummer). In general, power metal seems to be more self-aware of how ridiculous and repetitive it is. See Gloryhammer, which is effectively a power metal parody band, taking the lyrical absurdity up a notch and replacing dragons with unicorns etc.

If there's any self-referential/parody country music out there I'd actually be curious to hear to it.

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

#138

Post by quacked »

grapeskin wrote: post #123
quacked wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even if it were the case that all modern music is about drinking and cheating (which if is not; according to Billboard, the most recent #1 country song is about some things lasting forever, whereas the recent #1 hip-hop songs has a bridge about 'spinning the block'), getting drunk and cheating on your woman isn't anywhere near as serious as bragging about murdering your enemies and slinging hard drugs.

This ridiculous equivalence between popular country and popular hip-hop should end. The two genres are made for entirely different social classes of people for entirely different reasons. The number of popular songs unironically glorifying violence in hip-hop is much, much higher than the number of songs unironically glorifying violence in country. The original commenter was correct.

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

#139

Post by eezurr »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #74
dendrite9 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."…

Yeah the region has some incredible stuff. If you've never heard it before the master musicians of jajouka are pretty great. The way it builds up is just amazing [1] Sub-saharan music with similar influences like Ghanaian Hi-life is also really cool [2]. I think the first time I heard any of it was actually starting off a DJ set of mostly electronic stuff, but it fit really well [3] There's a pretty good curation of…

I'll add my own favorite to the list. I dont like dancing but this song makes me want to dance:

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLLU6bzks7A

Some more:

[2, live] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIUbWnxxfuM

[3, live] https://youtu.be/0s6WjkNlzK4?t=67

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

#140

Post by noisy_boy »

jzellis wrote: post #126

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…

This reminds me of my young days when I happened to visit my grandpa's house during summer vacation. I had a habit of going for long walks during the cool evenings/early nights - one of those teenage things. On this particular night, I walked farther than usual and came upon a clearing next to the bank of the local river - it was a small river next to the tea gardens. This being a small town very long ago had next to no light pollution - the sky was FULL of stars. Just so many stars. As I walked ahead, I heard the sound of kirtan[0] coming from a hut nearby. I walked over and it was mainly working class folks gathered around few kerosene lamps singing. Just the chorus of simple folks singing devotional songs accompanied by a khol[1]. When I reached them, they continued their singing and just shifted to make space for me to sit - my arrival was as normal to them as the cool breeze blowing through the grass. I listened to the songs mixing with the night under countless stars, not sure for how long, and then quietly left, just like I had arrived.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnava_Padavali

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khol

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