Kwaito is viewed as a cultural product of the societal norms and historical context of townships of South Africa. Kwaito is serving a transmitter of popular fashion, language and attitude.
During the emergence of Kwaito, Boom Shaka emerged as a symbol of empowerment and voice for young women. A CNN article considered Boom Shaka and TKZee the most influential Kwaito groups in South African music. Kwaito music is not only popular in South Africa but all around Africa and one country in particular is Namibia.
Female Kwaito artists
 |
| Lebo Mathosa |
Kwaito is a largely male-dominated genre, but despite that, there are a number of female artists who were successful in this genre. Brenda Fassie, the longtime pop superstar adopted a Kwaito style as it became more popular in the 1990s. According to Time, she was known for both her diva attitude and sex & drugs scandals but also for her lyrics that dealt with complex issues of African life and culture. Another artist is Lebo Mathosa who was killed in a car crash in 2004. She rose to fame as a group member of the Kwaito group Boom Shaka and she later became a solo artist. She was called South African’s ‘wild child’ because of her X-Rated lyrics and dance moves, but despite this, she gained widespread popularity, and performed at Nelson Mandela’s 85th birthday celebration. According to FHM magazine, Lebo Mathosa performed alongside American female Hip Hop artist, Missy Elliot.
Kwaito and dancing
Kwaito is more than just a music genre. An article posted on CNN.com describes Kwaito as a whole subculture with a swirl of irresistible dance beats. According to Sonjah Stanley-Niaah in his article “Mapping Black Atlantic Performance Geographies: From Slave Ship to Ghetto”, dancing has given Kwaito increased appeal. In the beginning of the 1950s in South Africa, people went to “Shebeens” to listen to music, dance and socialize on the weekends. As kwaito emerged and became the norm of music in shebeens, its popularity quickly increased. The first kwaito group, Boom Shaka, was the first to create and popularize dance moves to accompany kwaito music. The steps are said to offer a window into the everyday lives of ordinary South Africans by building on traditional dance styles.
Kwaito went through a lot of transformations:
It started out as a music genre which was played in Shebeens in the 1950s;moving on to being a very popular genre among the youth of South Africa; and today it’s known to be the voice of many voiceless people out there who are in it to express their feelings. Dance is known to be a form of self-expression and so Kwaito dancing fits right in. You even find fashion designers who were inspired/fascinated by Kwaito artists to start a trend of fashion in accordance with Kwaito. Today Kwaito is seen as a form of lifestyle and not just music and dance.
yes i agree that Kwaito has been there for a long time now, but i see it as perishing slowly but surely.there are less people who are still supporting Kwaito compared to the other Genres of Music especialy the Youth.
ReplyDeleteTrue that, but there are those still fighting for kwaito to stay, eg: Arthur Mafokate. Many were convinced kwaito was dead but there are people who still love kwaito very much. And i think the reason why the youth no longer supports kwaito like they did before is coz many many new artists are doing house, so we go for the house one's but if a very good kwaito song comes out then we will support it definitely.
ReplyDeleteeverytime i think kwaito i think trend setter. that is why i think these icon should be rembered
ReplyDeleteTrue, they should be remembered because if it wasn't for kwaito then we wouldn't have house music.
ReplyDeletekwaito is like the ANC it has been there for a long time and I feel that we as a nation do not support it we support only international music and not our own, which is not good
ReplyDeleteYes,that's very true. We as South Africans have a tendency of supporting international artists more than we do our own and unless we want our entertainment to grow rapidly more than it is now, we gonna have to do much better than we are doing now.
ReplyDeletei feel very touched to still see people looking at the impact and role played by the popular kwaito genre which is now considered dead so it is good to remember those who paved the way for our upcoming artists .
ReplyDeleteI also agree that kwatio is premishing. the reason why kwatio music is premishing is because they are falling to adapt to the environment and it is quiet obvious that if you donot adapt you premish.
ReplyDeleteVincent, yes, it essential to look back at where we came from in order to see where we are going.
ReplyDeleteDineo, what you're saying is quite true. But today you find new successful kwaito artists like 'Big Nuz, Professor,etc', these are examples of artists that are doing great in kwaito even though kwaito was proclaimed dead.
ReplyDeletei think kwaito is one of the populr music with different style and good swagg,and as the citizens we are proud 2 have kwaito in our country as it what the South African artists excel most in.
ReplyDelete