MIKA the better one wrote:
This is by no mean an attack on SA music it may well be growing BUT, to state that the industry is just as good as overseas is in my view VERY ignorant. Has anyone else experienced this sort of feeling that perhaps The music scene here is getting to big for its boots?
This is part of a bigger phenomenon. South Africans have some rather bizarre perceptions of how our little country fits into the world. We stamp our little feet when we're not included in groups of powerful nations and are aghast that no-one knows anything about the place.
But South Africa is a nation of 48 million people on the ass-end of the African continent. We don't count next to Brazil or India, Indonesia, or the Ukraine.
These delusions of grandeur sometimes enter our music scene too. The music listened to by the majority of South Africans, Kwaito, Gospel, etc. is fiercely competitive, and I think a lot of great acts emerge all the time (Mafikizolo and Vusi Mahlasela are two obvious examples that leap to mind). Unfortunately, there's not a huge market for it outside the continent.
The rock scene on the other hand, is maintained by a handful of people. Statistics will tell you straight out that there are unlikely to be that many brilliant groups. Part of that is lack of competition. If you're a band in Atlanta Georgia, and you suck, you're going to go down fast. Because you're going to be competing for stage time with dozens of other groups. You will not survive unless you have some performing ability, and some decent songs.
Here you can get by with maybe one good song and the ability to make eye-contact with your audience. And then, if you are good (speaking especially for Cape Town here) there may be so few people who are into the kind of music you make that it's unsustainable - hence the domination of certain kinds of music that most people like.
It's a really tough ask to have good musicians, with good songs, containing lyrics that actually mean something to an audience, with the ability to put on a performance. With so few people in the game here, it's rare to find this combination. Anyone who thinks there's more going on here is kidding themselves. Every now and then, the luck will come up and someone with all those characteristics, like Johnny Clegg, will emerge. But generally, the numbers are against the SA rock music scene compared to the USA and Britain.
