3.2 Four different styles of music  (Page 3/5)

2.2 identifies and describes the many kinds of dances in South Africa.

DRAMA

2.3 reflects on drama (television, radio, community or classroom) in terms of:

• recognising key moments in a drama;
• identifying themes, ideas and moods;
• explaining why particular techniques were used;being sensitive to the social and cultural contexts;

MUSIC

2.4 recognises the letter names of notes on lines and in spaces on a treble staff and their difference in pitch;

2.5 recognises crotchet, minim and quaver note values and rests in a short melody;

2.6 recognises and describes the different timbres of voices in choral music;

2.7 listens to a variety of selected songs and identifies the genre (e.g. Blues, Pop, Kwaito, Classical, Traditional, Free-Kiba, Opera, Musicals, Malombo, Kwassa-Kwassa, Techno, Soukous), and offers opinion on the style;

VISUAL ARTS

2.8 differentiates between various art forms such as drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, design, craftwork, and graphic media;

2.9 responds to images and craft objects used in popular culture, pictures and photographs in terms of purpose, content, form, contrast and meaning.

Memorandum

ACTIVITY 1: FOUR DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC

The advantages of this activity are twofold:

• Initially the learner is introduced to certain music genres.
• Secondly, the learner is made aware of the timbre of different solo voices.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Below is a summary of the four styles.

1. Kwaito

Kwaito can be described as the dance music of the townships: a mixture of vocal street music and dance. It is considered to be one of the most popular genres in the youth music culture of South Africa - it even enjoys international support.

Black South Africans often consider black Americans as their role models and therefore it is not strange that Kwaito has been influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B.

During the early 1990's, the South African DJ's were inclined to play records at a slower speed (45 or 33 rpm). The young people enjoyed dancing to this slow (and low) speed - it gave them the chance to give more expression and feeling to the dance.

Kwaito is city music, which reflects the life style of a huge group of youngsters. It is more approachable than the other African music genres, as it is modern and aimed less at traditional music forms.

Characteristic of Kwaito (similar to Hip-Hop) is rap and breakdancing.

Examples: Arthur Mofakate (King of Kwaito)

Mandoza

Lekgoa (Lekgoa = Sotho word for white boy) Francois Henningh

2. Soukous and Kwassa-Kwassa

Soukous originated in Zaire (Kinshasha). The word itself is derived from the French word "secouer", which means to shake. Soukous refers to the music and dance style of the 60's.

Although the people of Zaire classify their music according to specific songs and dances e.g. Kwassa-Kwassa, Nyekese, Mayebo and Moto, a trend took place to use the term Soukous for all fast music in this type of style.

"Kwassa-Kwassa" (derived from the French, meaning "What is it?") has been a specific music and dance style since the late 80's. Soukous is thus dance music. It uses happy, fast flowing melodies with Latin dance rhythms in the African framework.