Glynis O’Hara : South African music
On the one hand, there has been far more variety available in local music through 1997 than ever before, says Dave Alexander, owner of Tequila Records, but on the other hand there were “no stunners, no huge, extraordinary sales. Leon Schuster sold 130 000 (with Gautvol in Paradise), Rebecca sold 100 000 (Angingedwa), Just Jinger (All Comes Round) are apparently getting close to 100 000, but really, other sales were not much more than that.”
To put this in context, back in the late 1980s, Lucky Dube sold 300 000 one year — a record that hasn’t even been approached since then. The industry says that’s largely due to expanding piracy, but it probably also had a lot to do with broadcasting that focused almost exclusively on American product until the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) pushed local on to the airwaves over the last year or two.
On top of this, the year hasn’t been a good one for the man in the street. “Retail music sales have suffered. People have less disposable income and music is much more of a luxury than before. People simply can’t afford to just buy CDs and cassettes all the time. I used to buy one a month, but not any more.
“The price of music hasn’t changed but real income has gone down and that hits the entertainment industry quite hard, especially the recording industry.
“There’s been a lot of disappointment with sales. Stimela, released in November 1996, sold a third of what it could have. Even Boom Shaka and Arthur aren’t where they should be.”
Arthur sold more than 100 000 with Kaffir, and although he didn’t come close to that figure with Die Poppe Sal Dans, his latest release Oyi Oyi is already at the 125 000 mark.
“Partly the disappointment is related to the much wider choice in his genre now,” says Alexander. “There are so many kwaito acts and they all sound pretty similar, although the Mdu and Arthur stable do have differences in their sound.”
For these reasons — low disposable income and flooding the market with one sound — record companies should be much more disciplined about what they were putting out, he said. “Not everyone deserves to be recorded and there have definitely been some really bad choices this year.”
Internationally, though, there had been some gains for South African acts, with Stimela, Magic Cactus and Oom released in Italy and Zimbabwe, Stimela in Scandinavia, Lucky Dube doing very well in Africa, Coleske released in 21 countries and charting well in Germany and Austria, Just Jinger performing in London and Don Laka being released in Europe.
South Africa had the musicianship, he said, but if there was one general weakness, it was songwriting.
“Artists should be disciplined on songwriting by their record companies when it’s necessary, because they are not by definition good at it and we get some really bad stuff recorded.”
South African music publishers needed to be proactive, to focus on songwriting as a craft, a job, and to nurture and promote it.
“There are really good songwriters in the country who are not front-stage artists, who should be employed by the companies to write. Publishers should give them advances — perhaps a salary for three months — to write material for a particular album,”
Publishers are beginning to do a bit more promotion, with Gallo Publishing, for example, staging a showcase this year featuring bands like Henry Ate, Original Evergreen and Bright Blue as songwriters and trying to get them either signed or signed to bigger companies.
Polygram also invested in songwriting when it sent Leonel Bastos overseas to a major songwriting workshop, where composers from all over the world were paired up and told to produce. A grand and terrifying experiences was Bastos’s account on radio a few months back.
Another marked trend, thanks to government intervention, has been more local music on radio, now legislated at 20%. “I wish it were higher,” says Alexander, “but it has made a difference.”
On a wider industry level, Sue Gillard’s visit from Ausmusic put some spark into movers and shakers here and the effects may still come to light.
And the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology’s effort in staging a local content in broadcasting conference left the Ministry of Post, telecommunications and Broadcasting, which should have done it, standing.
This became less surprising when minister Jay Naidoo’s closing speech revealed his complete ignorance of what had gone on there for two days and delivered a misguided tirade that left delegates fuming.
Otherwise everyone was going, “Coleske, who’s Coleske?”, as the brothers toured and charted in Germany and Austria. And Yvonne Chaka Chaka stayed the princess of Africa by releasing a very good pan-African album that, typically, hardly anyone back home seemed to notice.
Ah well, they do say that the Swedes couldn’t stand Roxette.
“A&R people just don’t get their dual function, artists and repertoire. They think that artists just write their own material, but that’s not the case. Major, major United States stars sing songs by professional songwriters or by other artists.” (Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, sung by Whitney Houston, is a good example, as is Better Midler’s rendition of Wind Beneath my Wings).
“Television has been disappointing though, because the way local content is defined there means that if the person who makes the programme is South African, it qualifies, whether it’s about South Africa or not and has South African music in it or not. And they seem to play fewer and fewer local music videos on TV.
“As far as live shows go, I’ve been totally disappointed this year. There have been hardly any big ones, except for the support acts for international acts, the Two Nations in Concert in Johannesburg and the triple bill of Just Jinger, Amersham and The Usual concert tour in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. That did incredibly well and bravo to BMG for staging that.
“I also liked the Steve Dyer Mahube project with Oliver Mtukudzi that went to Germany in November. Apparently that’s going to be recorded.”
Still, it was a year that saw white, English music expand as never before, that confirmed Leon Schuster as the country’s most popular funnyman — be it on film, video or CD — and again seemed to confirm that gospel singer Rebecca is far and away the biggest-selling musical act (Schuster doesn’t claim to be a “real musician”).