[HN Gopher] The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan... ___________________________________________________________________ The popularity of country music in rural sub Saharan Africa Author : blegh Score : 47 points Date : 2022-06-30 21:42 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (twitter.com) (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com) | jamal-kumar wrote: | Another interesting African music genre: Desert Blues [1], which | mostly comes out of the Western Sahara. I like this example | (Title: Tinariwen (+IO:I) - Tenere Taqqal (what has become of the | Tenere) ) [2] | | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_blues | | [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boiiiVh52v4 | betwixthewires wrote: | A lot of people don't really know it, but American country music | is the most commercially successful music genre worldwide and is | popular in places such as southeast Asia, Mongolia, sub Saharan | Africa, even India and Latin america. Europeans and city dwelling | Americans love to shit on it but the world loves it, probably | because it's easy to relate to lyrically and uses pleasant | melodies and simple to follow rhythms. Love, heartbreak and | agriculture are pretty much universal. | rayiner wrote: | I found it funny when I was growing up that my dad | (Bangladeshi) listened to country music. I was more of a Dave | Matthew's guy, but as a dad my dial is also stuck on WMZQ. It's | simple and easy to relate to. | rmason wrote: | I would wager that this came about as a result of the Internet. I | can't imagine some record company deciding Africans would like | country music and investing there. No the interest started first | and then it pulled the record companies along. | | Next question is when will country music stars start touring | there? | Apocryphon wrote: | The second and third tweets in that thread refute that | hypothesis. | arkitaip wrote: | It's been a trend since the 70s. | cowtools wrote: | Who knows, maybe country music was all the rage on the | ARPANET | legalcorrection wrote: | At least half of the songs in those videos aren't really country | as much as americana/folk/blues. | jimkleiber wrote: | I lived in Tanzania for a few years and while riding an | absolutely packed daladala (minibus), I heard over the radio Lee | Greenwood belt "...and I'm proud to be an American!" I was so | confused, but smiling, but so confused. | infinitek wrote: | This is interesting, because country music is very popular in | aboriginal Australia too. Further reading: | https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.abc.net.au/news/201... | RajT88 wrote: | The one that really threw me is that American country music is | very popular in France. | | I have never been, so naturally I am sure my view of the place | and the people is skewed. | Daub wrote: | I lived in Burma for a while. Up in the north, line dancing is | super popular. | excitom wrote: | Anecdotal evidence: Playing around with a site like | http://radio.garden/ it seems 70s-80s rock is quite popular. | uhoh-itsmaciek wrote: | American country music has been heavily influenced by African | Americans since the beginning (often without recognition, though | that's starting to change.) The banjo is based on African | instruments, and many musicians like Huddie Ledbetter, Elizabeth | Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, Arnold Shultz, and DeFord Bailey | helped shape the genre. It's great to see this popularity in | Africa--in a weird way, it's almost like coming full circle. | chrisdhoover wrote: | Maybe there was some cross pollination but the progenitors of | country were the hillbilly folk music now now as bluegrass that | is rooted in English, Scottish and Irish folk music. Banjos | were adopted later, the original form was fiddle based. | yardie wrote: | Because country music is also black music. | | And there have been Black, country musicians as long as country | music has existed. But you wouldn't know them because of the | racist history of Nashville music industry. | betwixthewires wrote: | It's popular in Vietnam too, maybe you know why that is as | well? | rayiner wrote: | But we're talking about Africans, a culturally distinct group | of people. | selimthegrim wrote: | I am pretty sure Charley Pride is not obscure | vanattab wrote: | Charley who? | cyberbanjo wrote: | One of my favorites | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5ZWRFr5ls | RajT88 wrote: | There is a metal scene in Africa too. | | https://www.anorak.co.uk/381262/celebrities/music-celebritie... | [deleted] ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-06-30 23:00 UTC)