The queen of Xhosa music has passed away. She reinvigorated ancient Xhosa cultural traditions through performance and teaching.
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Articles on South African music
Displaying 1 - 20 of 36 articles
New survey shows poor earnings from music streaming made worse by the digital divide and a lack of policy.
The album Mr. Money With The Vibe, with its amapiano influences, is just 30 minutes long but it speaks volumes about Asake’s talents.
The beats are fresh but the performances are second rate and lacking star quality.
Controversial South African band Die Antwoord illustrates the power relations that make cultural appropriation and blackface so damaging.
Group Theory: Black Music is the name of the new album from the composer, drummer and scholar. On it jazz meets political theory.
The jazz star says he wants his piano to speak in his isiZulu language, and that his music is born from spiritual concerns.
Moya is a show that seeks a spiritual awakening, especially after the trauma and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her celebration of black life, black beauty and black humanity through her films and music was subversive.
The saxophone legend played much more than jazz - he delighted in layering styles and genres.
Jazz star Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse has turned 70. In 50 years, his music career has come to help define South African politics and popular culture.
Schooled in music through church, he was driven by a fierce sense of belonging to Lesotho where he was born, and neighbouring South Africa.
For over 50 years Tshola was loved by audiences around the world for his rich baritone voice, which he used to inspire and to speak political truths.
South Africa’s greatest composer was uniquely shaped by his early years of singing at traditional Zulu weddings and working in jazz bands and church choirs.
We should remember him as just another ordinary human being who did extraordinary things.
He did not so much play the drums, as become the drum. His influence was felt through his trailblazing percussive work and his many collaborations.
Despite devastating setbacks like his studio being vandalised, the saxophonist and teacher believed that music can heal - part of a vision that shaped a future generation of jazz artists.
She was the glue that bound younger artists together, helping them navigate the volatile terrain of the music industry.
Both choirs and classical music were childhood influences on a stellar career that would leave behind major new recordings in these areas.
She was a vocalist who sang in every style – from Carmen to UShaka – with equal mastery, popularising classical forms and epitomising ‘the new South Africa’.
Top contributors
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Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria
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Lecturer in Jazz, University of Pretoria
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Associate Professor, Department of Music, University of Venda
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Professor Emeritus, Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town
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Lecturer, University of Fort Hare
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Head of Department and senior lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Rhodes University
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PhD Candidate, University of the Free State
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PhD Candidate, University of the Free State
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Senior Lecturer of Music, University of the Free State
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Professor of Economics and Researcher at the South African Cultural Observatory, Rhodes University
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Professor of English Literature, King's College London
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Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
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Associate lecturer, University of Plymouth
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Professor of Music Emeritus, and University Fellow, University of KwaZulu-Natal
