Radio 2

[Cali]

At 10pm tonight on BBC Radio 2 (according to my dad)...there is a programme on SA music.

It's the 2nd part - my dad taped some of it last week and it was encredibly interesting and really 'lekker' to hear.

If it's not on.... blame my dad not me!

[Joan]

Originally posted by Cali
At 10pm tonight on BBC Radio 2 (according to my dad)...there is a programme on SA music.

It's the 2nd part - my dad taped some of it last week and it was encredibly interesting and really 'lekker' to hear.

If it's not on.... blame my dad not me!

Cali, I always listen to Radio II during the day, I know that Hugh Masekela is one of the artists that will be discussing the role of music in the "struggle" .


I do not really like his music, jazz......... or for that matter Miriam Makeba's music.

Hope you are keeping well, we have not corresponded in a long time!!!

[Cali]

*you are quite right Joan, I have missed our chats!!*

Last week they didn't have so much of Miriam and they had more in the way of Lucky Dube, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Brenda Fasie along with some mining songs. Some of it quite haunting. (in a beautiful way)

My dad and I tried to think of other SA artists that they could cover and all I could come up with was Sipho 'hotstix' and a few others but not many.

Not a huge fan of Hugh myself. Maybe because I dont' really listen to his music and think African Jazz...

[picanin]

Cali sorry but a program like that is only going to present a one sided view of SA music if the list of artists is anything to go by. It is very fashionable to play black South African music but what about the white artists? Why do they not get coverage? It is much the same as what I have posted on music sales here. It is very fashionable for Saffers over here to prove their non racial credentials by trotting out their ethnic music collections to Pom friends. The Saffer shops - which cater for a largely white clientelle - only stock music by black musicians for whites needing to fill their "Gee look at how Rainbow Nationany I am" collections.

In so doing other areas of SA music are being sadly neglected. Afrikaans music today has some of the best musos around. Unfortunately many English speakers still have a stupid perception that Afrikaans music consists only of squash boxes, waltzes and Bles Bridges when in fact there is some really excellent music being made. These artists deserve to get coverage over ehre but it appears that people at groups like the BBC dont consider them ethnic enough to be given airplay.

What about groups like Springbok Nude Girls? They deserve to be heard. They are quite possibly one of SA's all time greatest groups. Does the fact that they are white mean that they shouldnt get overseas exposure? Maybe if they had gotten it they would have been a household name today instead of another name in SA musical history.

Musos like Piet Botha, Valiant Swart and Karen Zoid should be getting international exposure. The BBC is guilty of neglect if they arent letting people over here hear the music that these guys make.

[Pampered]

Originally posted by picanin
Cali sorry but a program like that is only going to present a one sided view of SA music if the list of artists is anything to go by. It is very fashionable to play black South African music but what about the white artists? Why do they not get coverage? It is much the same as what I have posted on music sales here. It is very fashionable for Saffers over here to prove their non racial credentials by trotting out their ethnic music collections to Pom friends. The Saffer shops - which cater for a largely white clientelle - only stock music by black musicians for whites needing to fill their "Gee look at how Rainbow Nationany I am" collections.

In so doing other areas of SA music are being sadly neglected. Afrikaans music today has some of the best musos around. Unfortunately many English speakers still have a stupid perception that Afrikaans music consists only of squash boxes, waltzes and Bles Bridges when in fact there is some really excellent music being made. These artists deserve to get coverage over ehre but it appears that people at groups like the BBC dont consider them ethnic enough to be given airplay.

What about groups like Springbok Nude Girls? They deserve to be heard. They are quite possibly one of SA's all time greatest groups. Does the fact that they are white mean that they shouldnt get overseas exposure? Maybe if they had gotten it they would have been a household name today instead of another name in SA musical history.

Musos like Piet Botha, Valiant Swart and Karen Zoid should be getting international exposure. The BBC is guilty of neglect if they arent letting people over here hear the music that these guys make.

I agree with you Pic...it does not seem fair that the white singers get left out of this type of exposure...

[StevenP]

Originally posted by Pam M
I agree with you Pic...it does not seem fair that the white singers get left out of this type of exposure...

The SA white music scene has always been hindered by politics.

White Rock music and metal only started to get exposure when the likes of Metalmorphosis (Vas' band) forced itself into the SA mainstream.

The main problem, apart from the political correctness issues is that South Africans in General do not support homegrown talent. They'd rather spend R300 on a ticket to see Bryan Adams than R10 to watch a quality local act. Same goes for CD sales.

The SA public buys what is fed to them by the UK and US. Fortunately, that mindset is starting to change.

Here in the UK, it's ONLY local talent that gets the main crust of support from the buying public, followed by American music, hence why the music industry here is one of the biggest industries in the UK, next to booze.

South Africans are generally very fickle when supporting their own. How many of you guys actually go and actively attend gigs by great SA bands like Starseed (based in the UK now). Not many, I would imagine. A great South African singer (and one hell of a laugh) is a guy called Ren Bester, in a band called Nowhere Near The Garden. How many of you have heard of them?

I'll hedge my bets that loads of people own Miriam Makeba albums, but never listen to them. Pic mentioned my mate, Piet Botha - who in my eyes (apart from being son of Pik) is one of the most talented people I have ever come across, yet how many people will buy his albums?

I can go on and on and on, but in a nutshell, South Africans need to look at their homegrown talent with no colour barriers just because they think it's cool - we have some of the world's hottest talent over there that's being wasted by a public that cares more about Busted!

[birdie]

StevenP I have to disagree, over the last three to four years I think South African Artist had more interest from the public than ever before. Every time I go home for a holiday their is a new band or artist and it plays everywhere you go, and everybody has the CD. Their is so many upcoming artis that it is hard to keep track. If their wasn't enough support etc...their wouldnt be so many new bands and the older ones wouldn't be so sucessfull. On the other hand for it to get internationally recognised will be hard as some of the best is in Afrikaans and well.....would you buy a Polish CD if you didn't understand anything? African music is more about the rythm and although you don't understand the words etc...you get a certain feeling/vibe of Africa and the wild. I do not blame international people for listening to that rather than Afrikaans music.

My main point however though is that I think South Africans are supporting the music industry more than ever!!

[Pampered]

Originally posted by birdie
StevenP I have to disagree, over the last three to four years I think South African Artist had more interest from the public than ever before. Every time I go home for a holiday their is a new band or artist and it plays everywhere you go, and everybody has the CD. Their is so many upcoming artis that it is hard to keep track. If their wasn't enough support etc...their wouldnt be so many new bands and the older ones wouldn't be so sucessfull. On the other hand for it to get internationally recognised will be hard as some of the best is in Afrikaans and well.....would you buy a Polish CD if you didn't understand anything? African music is more about the rythm and although you don't understand the words etc...you get a certain feeling/vibe of Africa and the wild. I do not blame international people for listening to that rather than Afrikaans music.

My main point however though is that I think South Africans are supporting the music industry more than ever!!

So if it's a language thing, why are the black musicains more "popular" internationally than the white bands? Do they sing in english?Or Afrikaans for that matter?

Language is not the issue here.

[StevenP]

Originally posted by birdie
My main point however though is that I think South Africans are supporting the music industry more than ever!!

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was rtalking historically.

Since the quota system was introduced on radio 4 years ago, the South African public has been force-fed more local music. This is a good thing because people are more aware, and a bad thing because politics shouldn't extend to music.

That said, the general mindset does not change. People are only supporting the 'big bands' in SA, not the smaller ones, whereas here, there is always a buzz about the new small bands...

[birdie]

Maybe that is because people don't know about the small bands...