Music Homours Elude African Stars
bead...@ameritech.net
Nation Newspapers Limited, P.O. Box 49010, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254 2 221222/337710 | Fax: 214531/ 213946
E-mail: k...@africaonline.co.ke
Music Honours Elude African
Stars
March 7, 1999
Nairobi - Last week's 41st Grammy awards were the
last this century, but one thing which stood out is just
how thoroughly the organisers ignored African music
at a time when it is riding a high, both on its own and
as a flavouring for American music.
Indeed, some of the more exciting American R&B
artists like Eryka Badu owe their success to the
distinctive Africanness of their music.
In Europe, the "global beat" and "world beat" music
genres have relied heavily on sampled sounds of
African music and chants.
But more important is the irrefutable fact that there
has been a greater awareness about African music
this past year than ever before, both within the
continent and overseas.
Yet the Grammy organisers have steadfastly refused
to embrace this growth and continue giving African
music a back-handed compliment through
nominations that fail to bear fruit.
So far, the only African artist to have won a Grammy
is Malian star Ali Farka Ture who was declared joint
winner with a Canadian jazz guitarist in 1991.
In the successive years, a number of Africans have
been nominated but they never win.
They include Salief Keita in 1993, Black Mambazo
last year and Benin's Angelique Kidjo this year.
On the whole, it has become impossible to distinguish
between the Grammy and the American Music
Awards which have an obvious bias towards US
music. The problem with the Grammy is that it has
continued pretending to represent trends and set
standards for music from around the world.
Ironically, last year, the Grammy organisers created a
new category for Mexico's Tejano music to add on to
the earlier Mexican-American category.
There are four other Grammy categories for Latin
music, and Latinos also qualify for consideration in the
World Music category. It is not surprising that all but
two of the winners since this category's inception nine
years ago are from Latin America.
With award categories now standing at 98, three of
the latest are for polka music from Europe, Celtic
music from Ireland and American bluegrass - an old
esoteric form which is not familiar even in America.
Needless to say, none of the three forms can claim
the reach and prominence enjoyed by African music,
yet the organisers have not seen the need to reserve
a category for such music.
So how is it a world awards scheme? The reality is
that it has been peddled as one but it isn't.
Indeed, there was a lot more universality in the
organisation of the World Music Awards hosted in
Monaco in June.
Unlike the Grammy, the World Music Award selection
is not based on some abstract notion of panel-voting
but rather on sales. Among last year's winners were
Mariah Carey for American music, Puff Daddy in the
rap category, and Camerounian star Wes Madibo who
won the African music prize for his single, Alane,
which had sold 3 million units by the time of
presentation.
Madibo was not the only African musician feted last
year. With him were Youssou N'dour and Manu
Dibango in other categories.
By and large, the honour was indicative of the growing
acceptance of African music in Europe as a
mainstream rather than an esoteric form. In the last
decade, many European countries have had
organisations dedicated to African music which have
widened the market for music from the Third World.
There is also the growth of the Womad Festival.
This annual event in many European and South
Pacific region is largely responsible for this increased
awareness of African music. Last year, the festivals
had a combined attendance of 1.2 million people, a
number expected to grow.
In many ways, this snubbing of African music last
week indicates a continued refusal by the American
mainstream to acknowledge the strength of such
music at home and away.
This complacency could turn the Grammy into an
irrelevant event that means precious little outside
America.
Already, the popularity of the Canadian Juno Awards,
the British Music Awards and The German Music
Awards has diluted the esteem previously enjoyed by
the Grammy awards in those countries.
For African music, the Monaco event and, more
recently, the All Kora Music Awards hosted by South
Africa have helped draw more interest to African
music overseas.
Indeed, the worst thing about the 41st Grammy award
was that it ignored African music at a time when the
exodus of one-time overseas based African musicians
is lending new fervor to music from the continent.
The most remarkable developments at the moment
are two music research centres.
One is the Yiyi Centre, Cote d'Ivoire funded by
Congolese musician Ray Lema, while the other in
Natal is supported by Ray Phiri South Africa's greatest
voice in contemporary music.
Both seek to develop a new variety in African music
that has a more traditional flavour but is structured for
Western appeal.
And unlike in the past when the focus was on Europe,
all of them are back in Africa using skills they
acquired overseas in production and marketing.
Currently, much of the inspiration is from South Africa
and Mali, where a combination of government policies
and good industry initiatives are drawing their
nationals closer to their own music.
In South Africa, the pointmen are Hugh Masekela and
Abdulla Ibrahim, but the real inspiration has been
Brenda Fassie's hit single, Vulindlela, which is closing
in on the one million sales mark, and which has
outsold anything else in that country.
At the continental level, the Kora Award has brought
attention to Koffi Olomide who won the Artist of the
Year award in 1998, and to others in Africa.
At the industry level, CBS Records announced big
plans for Cameroonian star Madibo who is probably
the only African artist being pushed by a major label.
Others are being heard through dozens of small
labels and college radios.
Until recently, Kenyans largely remained out of
contention, but the success of a collection of hits by
Joseph Kamaru overseas which was released by
London-based Earthworks label could change all that.
Like in most other cases, the bulk of Kamaru's sales
could be credited to the growing Kenyan population
overseas but such a forum has a way of serving as a
media on its own that reaches out to other
nationalities.
Ultimately, even the Grammy award categories will
lose relevance to the rest of the world because
exposure to media and travel have opened doors to
varieties of music that were previously unheard of.
Copyright © 1999 The Nation. Distributed via Africa
News Online(www.africanews.org). For information
about the content or for permission to redistribute,
publish or use for broadcast, contact The Nation at
the link above.
**** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.remarq.com - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****
BeeJay
African music. Samewise, house has never been very popular in Africa.
Different (musical) upbringing I pressume. Too bad, but don't blame anyone
please.
Beejay
Remove 'Remove.' to reply, if so you wish to reply. If not, remove 'Remove.'
anyway.