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15 - Graceland revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2012

Charles Hamm
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Vermont
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Summary

Around the time of my last visit to South Africa, some of the music I'd been studying there was in the process of being “discovered” by the outside world. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Juluka, and other South African groups began receiving air play in Europe and North America; independent record companies such as Shanachie in the United States and Rough Trade in the UK released discs by other South African performers; rock journalists, from the Village Voice to The New York Times, displayed a sudden expertise in “African pop,” including South African varieties; long-time expatriate musicians Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, who had performed in international jazz and pop styles since leaving South Africa, began reintroducing traditional African elements into their music; and Paul Simon released his Graceland album with backing tracks by South African musicians, some of them recorded during a furtive visit to Johannesburg.

As an acoustical phenomenon, the infusion of rhythmic vitality and clean sonorities from South African popular styles had a salutary, if temporary, impact on Western pop. Social meaning was more problematic, though. In Europe and North America, this music was incorporated into existing social structures, as a new variety of dance music. But many in the West also insisted on linking it with the black struggle for freedom in South Africa, using it in anti-apartheid rallies.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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  • Graceland revisited
  • Charles Hamm, Dartmouth College, Vermont
  • Book: Putting Popular Music in its Place
  • Online publication: 05 February 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895500.016
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  • Graceland revisited
  • Charles Hamm, Dartmouth College, Vermont
  • Book: Putting Popular Music in its Place
  • Online publication: 05 February 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895500.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Graceland revisited
  • Charles Hamm, Dartmouth College, Vermont
  • Book: Putting Popular Music in its Place
  • Online publication: 05 February 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511895500.016
Available formats
×