BY DR TONY M MONDA
Streaming across the globe, music from the African Continent is influencing pop culture the world over with international pop musicians like Beyonce, Chris Brown, Drake, Janet Jackson and Snoop Dogg fusing Afro-Diaspora sounds into their music.
The infectious syncopated southern African rhythm known as Amapiano has become an integral reflection of the musical life, culture and urban societies of the region.
While some have described Amapiano as an unwholesome, excessive and violent genre, it remains a unique experience that has transcended musical, racial, gender and cultural boundaries and can be enjoyed universally.
Amapiano music, which emerged in the post-apartheid-era of South Africa, is experiencing an electrifying burst of appreciation across the globe and is destined to cross over into the global
mainstream Rhythm and Blues (RnB), Soul, Indie and other international Pop music genres. Infused with syncopated and cyclical baselines, AmaPiano music represents a fusion between Deep House, Jazz and Soul with a percussive beat. It is currently trending and played in nightclubs and dance venues across Africa, Europe, America, Australia and in culturally- aligned spaces worldwide.
Collaborations between the various African musicians have expanded its Pan-African popularity.
It is distinguishable by its high-pitched piano melodies, barrelling baselines and slow tempo, deep house hypnotic rhythms and mellow grooves. It often features repetitive, raw vocals and jazzy samples ranging from a soulful piano to the flute.
As a musician, guitarist, traditional percussionist, drummer, saxophonist and keyboard player, I explored and studied this new South African phenomenon known as, Amapiano music during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced era of commercial hiatus and WHO-enforced safe-distancing,
The period 2020-2022 was a crucial period of reflection and inspiration for many creative and artistic people internationally. It was also a period when many Zimbabwean and South African musicians focused on creating, producing and flighting digitally produced music or making videos in isolated studios or in small clusters in their neighbourhoods.
During these trying times South African Amapiano music, which represents a truly South African sound, reached the pinnacle of its popularity. The genre, as we know it today, had already emerged in 2016, through the music of artists such as Kabza de Small, who released his album “Avenue Sounds” (2016), Gaba-Cannal and MFR Souls, who began to produce a slightly more ‘urban’ sound of the ‘Yanos’, as it is often referred to.
Amapiano initially found prominence in ‘underground’ pubs and taverns popular amongst South Africa’s township communities of Soweto, Alexandra, Katlehong, Vosloorus and others across the nation.
From an underground sound, by 2017 AmaPiano was shared predominantly on messaging apps and played on high rotation on commercial radio stations throughout South Africa. The sound came to represent the heart and soul of the townships.
In 2019, the genre experienced an increase in popularity across the African Continent, with noted increases in digital streams such as Spotify, and chart successes in countries far from its South African origin.
Spotify, an online streaming platform, believes streaming helped to elevate the voices of female AmaPiano artistes across the globe. It fuelled the dancing scene in South Africa with dancers such as 21-year-old dance Queen, Kamo Mphela, before it spread through the African Continent.
Amapiano which has immersed itself in other cultures has helped to accelerate the export of African music to the rest of the world. For instance, Beatport, the American online music store, added the AmaPiano Music genre to its platform in 2022, with its own dedicated charts and playlists in the USA.
In 2021, an awards ceremony was created – the ‘South Africa Amapiano Music Awards’, dedicated to this music genre.
Rooted in the genre of electronic dance music, Amapiano is influenced by Kwaito, another popular South African genre that emerged in the early-1990s, and features elements of RnB and Hip Hop, but deviates slightly with the inclusion of brighter Jazz keys and vocal cuts.
The viral development of Amapiano music thrived during the global COVID-19 pandemic when many musicians were secluded at home scrolling through apps like Instagram, MySpace, Sound Cloud and TikTok to keep abreast of their professions.
Succinctly, the name Amapiano is a Southern African Nguni and Zulu slang word loosely translated to mean ‘many pianos’, which is one of the most significant instruments of this genre. The genre is mostly sung in one of South Africa’s indigenous languages such as Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Setswana and Xitsonga and lately in Shona and Ndebele in Zimbabwe and Bemba in Zambia.
AmaPiano represents a truly South African sound rooted in the genre of electronic dance music. The music is distinguished by high-pitched piano melodies, South African iKwaito basslines, low tempo 1990’s South African House rhythms and percussions from another local sub-genre of House known as Tribal House.
Dr. Tony Michel Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He teaches and plays multiple instruments and has been a guest lecturer at universities in New York, Seattle, Washington DC, Florida, Amsterdam, Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Dar-es-Salaam and Harare. He is a music consultant for Zimbabwe’s education curriculum and an arts, culture and music critic for Gemnation News. For Comments E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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