Music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extraordinarily diverse. It is influenced by the various ethnic groups. In addition to traditional Congolese music, Congolese dance music is widespread.
Musical forms
Traditional music
The pre-colonial Congolese music is often treated together with the traditional music of other African areas . One reason for this is that the region of the Congo Basin, due to its very central location within the African continent, has an enormous cultural diversity, which has also adopted musical elements from other areas (e.g. the Sudan region).
The tonal systems are an example of this diversity : There are five-, six- and seven-note scales in Congolese chant, which is quite different in the individual subregions of today's Democratic Republic of the Congo. But although the exact type of song varies, there are similar forms of song:
- Prize songs (are usually performed as a saga by an imbongi (specialist) at a fast pace and are often about heroic people who have earned themselves.)
- Work songs
- Lyric songs
Most of the time, a lead singer will sing the stanzas of a song while the chorus is sung by a choir or group.
Congolese dance music (soukous)
The popular style of music that has dominated the country since colonial times, even outside the country's borders, is Congolese dance music .
In the 1920s, especially in the colonial capital Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), a music scene was formed, both from the Congolese and from foreigners from other colonies. The music that was created there took up traditional West African as well as South American and European influences.
In the 1930s and 1940s, West Africans such as the Hausa, as well as the musical groups formed by French and American soldiers stationed in the Congo, influenced local music. The first recording studios were founded and records and gramophones became popular. The Congolese groups of that time usually consisted of a singer and several musicians, who mainly played guitar , drums , accordion or clarinet . The Congolese rumba style became popular, which in large part resembled Cuban rumba.
Since 1959, small "orchestras", usually consisting of two to three singers and at least nine instrumentalists, have been favored. In addition to their size, they differed from the earlier groups through the use of saxophone , drum and later also electric guitar . Music publishers like Ngoma took care of the publication of their works. The most famous Congolese orchestras of the time were Beguen Band , African Jazz and OK Jazz . They also supported the country's independence movement and advocated the emancipation of Congolese women. The singer Wendo Kolosoy achieved the greatest hit of the 1950s with Marie-Louise , which is widely regarded as the starting point for modern Congolese music.
After the country gained independence in 1960, the two bands African Jazz and OK Jazz achieved fame throughout Europe and played concerts mainly in Belgium. African Jazz split up a short time later, however, and a violent copyright conflict arose over the sales of the group's songs. In 1965 there were over 600 smaller music groups in Léopoldville and the music business flourished.
Congolese soukous music has been changing since 1970: Rumba music, which is still published today by Wendo and groups like Kékélé , has been replaced by the style of the so-called Zaiko generation . This consists of mostly young musicians and largely dispenses with wind instruments such as the saxophone, but still contains large elements of classical Congolese guitar music. Examples of the modern Congolese dance music generation are the artist Papa Wemba and the music group Madilu System .
Novel forms of music
Recently, the soukous-based N'dombolo style of music has become popular in Congolese nightclubs. This fast-paced form of music is danced with very physical emphasis, the swinging of the hips and shaking of the buttocks are the main characteristics of the dance. This was not welcomed by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the start, so that in February 2005 several music videos by N'dombolo artists Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were indexed on the radio for indecency.
Nowadays there are many music groups that make traditional dance music popular around the world, mostly in a modified form. One example is the band Staff Benda Bilili from Kinshasa, which emerged in 2004 from a street music project for the physically disabled and through the French documentary Benda Bilili! got a record deal and international fame. 2009 won Staff Benda Bilili also on the World Music Expo the Artist Award for World Music .
European classical music is also cultivated in Kinshasa with the Orchester Symphonique Kimbanguiste , the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa . The work of the more than 200 musicians was also accompanied by a documentary, the German production Kinshasa Symphony from 2010.
The pop music is in the country gradually popular. For example, the Congolese singer and dancer Jessy Matador is known to a wider audience in Europe since he appeared for France at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klett Handbook for Travel and Business: Africa . Part 1 (West and Central Africa), Hamburg 1971, ISBN 3-12-949000-0
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music Introduction
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music, part 1
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music part 2
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music part 3
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music, part 4
- ↑ Kongo-Kinshasa.de: Overview of the history of Congolese modern dance music, part 5
- ↑ Spiegel.de: Götterfunke auf dem Hof, accessed on October 3, 2010