South African Popular Music
by Lior Phillips
From the storied ache of mbube harmonies of the '40s to the electronic boom of kwaito and the amapiano and house explosion of the '00s, this book explores vignettes taken from across South Africa's popular music history. There are moments in time where music can be a mighty weapon in the fight for freedom. Disguised in a danceable hook or shouted for the world to hear, artists have used songs to deliver important truths and bring listeners together in the face of a segregated reality. In the grip of the brutal apartheid era, South Africa crafted its own idiosyncratic popular musical vernacular that operated both as sociopolitical tool and realm of escape. In a country with 11 official languages, music had the power to unite South Africans in protest. Artists bloomed a new idyll from the branches of countless storied musical traditions, and in turn found themselves banned or exiled—the profound epiphany that music can exist both within the pleasure of itself and for serving a far greater purpose.
Paperback
English
Brand New
Author Biography
Lior Phillips is a South African music and culture journalist originally from Cape Town, now based in Chicago, USA. She writes about music, film, art, and more for international publications, including Dazed and Confused Magazine, The Recording Academy, Variety, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Quietus, NPR, The Guardian, Consequence of Sound, and GQ South Africa. In addition, she is the creator, producer, and host of This Must Be the Gig, a podcast dedicated to artists' vital memories of their first gigs and passion for live music and performance.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Simunye: We Are One1. The Lion Sleeps, The Evening Bird Sings2. Bantu Radio and Shebeen Jazz3. The Rebel Flute4. They Cannot Say Qongothwane5. Separate Development and Exile6. Grace, the Land, and Graceland7. The White Zulu8. Sun City, Bubblegum, and Shifting Afrikaans9. Free Nelson Mandela10. Creating the New: Mzansi Fo Sho11. Our HouseTen Essential TracksNotes
Review
Your next great music read. . . . Phillips explores how music had the power to unite a country of 11 official languages in times of sociopolitical unrest and the brutal apartheid era. * Consequence of Sound *
A beautiful book in the 33 1/3 Genre series. -- Jesse Mulligan * Radio New Zealand *
Promotional
Demonstrates the split personalities of South African popular music, and how it spread around the world and yet retained a full suite of unique and original languages, both literally and figuratively.
Promotional "Headline"
Demonstrates the split personalities of South African pop, and how it spread around the world and yet retained a full suite of unique and original languages, both literally and figuratively.
Feature
The majority of the original 33 1/3 series focuses on American and European music. African musical traditions stand as the wellspring for so many of those albums and this book gives this a platform within the same publishing family
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