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For a country whose international musical reputation is founded on the bedrock of musicians performing variations of traditional African music styles, South Africa has a veritable avalanche of unheard of rock acts who are well worth a bit more notice than they currently get. Right now, you ask anyone about South African music, and they’ll maybe know Miriam Makebe, Hugh Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Vusi Mahlasela. And these are without doubt some of the top acts playing around the country today. But it’s not the only thing emerging from the musical pot that is South Africa…
This should come as no surprise really, considering the luminaries currently working in the international music biz who have their roots firmly planted in the South African music scene. That legendary producer Eddie Kramer, who reputedly invented Jimi Hendrix’s famous wah wah sound, was originally South African. In the producer’s hall of fame he is joined by “Mutt” Lange and Kevin Shirley, both of whom originally hailed from the tip of Africa. ‘Yes’ front man and lead songwriter, Trevor Rabin, cut his teeth in a South African rock outfit call Rabbit, and even Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews band spent time growing up on these shores.
Even with these leading lights to boast of, however, the rock scene in South Africa has traditionally been a hard place to earn a living as a band. Scenes have come and gone, and even the current resurgence of interest in locally produced music, seems to be suffering from a severe case of the shakes.
In the late seventies, while the UK was in the grip of Sex Pistols fever, punk was alive and well in South Africa. As the effects of the socio-political revolution made their way south, many of the sons of ex-pat parents began to absorb the punk ethic. No-where was this more evident than the sleepy, sub-tropical coastal town of Durban, where hard-core punk acts like Power Age, and Wild Youth briefly blossomed, pushing Anarchy out into the harsh African sun. Although the punk scene as a movement with any momentum was short lived, rock was here to stay. Into the eighties, a scene began to build that used rock as a vehicle of rebellion against repressive social laws and restrictive media control. In this atmosphere the blend of traditional Zulu music and western rock forms that Johnny Clegg and Juluka invented, was born. The Asylum Kids and later Tribe After Tribe as well as acts like No Friends of Harry, The Psycho Reptiles and Penguins in Bondage continued to fly the rock banner even when most people were too apathetic to consider that there might be a message attached to the loud guitars and black clothes they uniformly wore.
In the last 30 years, three major uprisings of rock have taken place in South Africa. The scene has never completely died, but it certainly has seasonal fluctuations. In the seventies, bands like Rabbit, Clout and Freedom’s Children ruled the roost. Once that explosion simmered down, the mid-eighties saw a major revival with bands like The Helicopters, Petit Cheval, Sterling and Tellinger ruling the roost along side the huge alternative explosion coming up from the underground. After the government in various ways actively suppressed this spurt of so-called anti-social music, things went quiet for some time. Until in the nineties bands started crawling out of the woodwork again. With the explosion of Grunge in the states, some kind of punk-like DIY ethic and willingness to try again was re-born. The result was a phalanx of new bands like Sugardrive, The Springbok Nude Girls, Nine, Squeal, Scooter’s Union, Scabby Annie, Just Jinger, The Usual and too many others to mention, started suddenly to make waves. And very good records to boot.
It’s pretty hard to define the sound that unifies these South African rock bands under one banner. Perhaps there most identifying factor being their very diversity. One thing is for sure, while times may be lean, a lot of the bands are committed for the long haul. In South Africa, rock is predominantly a white orientated scene. And seeing as whites make up only a numerically insignificant percentage of the population, it is always going to be hard for these acts to make a living playing the style of music that they do. Which goes a long way to explaining the nihilistic burn and die trajectory of many of the best bands to have emerged in this country.
However, as hip-hop continues to cross-pollinate in the States, and as its influences bleed slowly and steadily into the urban areas of South Africa, a slow transition is taking place. The rock/rap cross over sound that Rage Against The Machine pioneered and that bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit now represent, means that here is at last a window out of these strict racial delineation’s, where rap fans and rock fans can get to appreciate each others music. Already in South Africa there is a strong tradition of musical cross-pollination. Bright Blue and The Usual both play rock tinged with the traditional Zulu rhythms of Mbaqanqa. Johnny Clegg sings in Zulu and remains heavily influenced by traditional Zulu guitar music. Trans Sky makes extensive use of African drums and Marimba’s: the pattern is already there.
The chief tragedy is that, due to the minute local sales of South African rock bands, most of their material never makes it to the outside world where it could easily stand up to the levels of the best. While we stand at the edge of the new millenium with a crop of great bands right now, we all wonder whether this is the end of another cycle like before, or the beginning of a great new thing to happen for South African rock. It’s not a race thing, it’s a taste thing, and we know the world has a taste for rock. Right here, we are breeding some of the best in the world, we’re just waiting for you to come and get it!
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