10 AFRICAN POP MUSIC AND DEMOCRACY

BOX 6.10 AFRICAN POP MUSIC AND DEMOCRACY

Ivorian pop music has long been quite political. When a 1999 coup by General Robert Gueï took over, it announced the overthrow of the Ivory Coast President with reggae superstar Alpha Blondy performing a song and then introducing the new president. Singer Tiken Jah Fakoly was even more identified with the revolution, having been an advisor to Gueï’s forces. The singers also act as liaisons between media and law enforcement agencies (Lee, 2000). Ivorian anthems have been used by political forces elsewhere. For example, Tiken Jah Fakoly’s “We’ve Had It” was taken up by protesters in Madagascar and his “The Country’s in Trouble” became the opposition anthem in Chad’s 2000 election (Médioni, 2002).

Nigerian singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, founder of the Afrobeat style, found an international audience before his death in 1997. His son Fema Kuti founded a movement against corruption and regularly writes

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editorials in song, most of which are censored in Nigeria. Afro-funk singer Angélique Kidjo emerged as the most popular person in her native Benin in a poll asking who they would prefer as President. Not interested in politics, she nonetheless has integrated Afro-Brazilian and African traditions to support democracy in Africa, as well as entertaining large international audiences (Médioni, 2002).

Uses and Gratifications of Popular Music

Popular music, indeed all music, appeals to the emotion in many different ways (Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). There are many uses and gratifications that we receive from music. For one thing, music is physiologically arousing. The body is “pumped up” in response to many kinds of music, although individual tastes vary. Music can induce pleasant mood states of different sorts and it can reduce feelings of anxiety and generally lift the spirits. Indeed, music is frequently used as a tool for mood management (Knobloch, 2003).

Music is also used to fill silence and fill in background noise, either at home or driving a car. Thus, it can relieve boredom. It also has a social function, being a natural background or a part of talking with friends, partying, or other recreation. Roberts and Christenson (2001) make the point that it is difficult to definitively separate social and solitary uses of music. Teens may often listen to music by themselves but for reasons that serve social relationships. For example, music may remind one of an absent friend and relieve loneliness. This is what Roberts and Christenson call “quasi- social.”

Music can also serve to help define one’s self-identity and facilitate one’s entry into some group. Within a high school, for example, one group listens to rap, one to heavy metal, another to country music, and so on. The music can be an agent of socialization to bring the teen into the subculture by influencing how they dress and act. This musical culture is not necessarily restricted to one’s culture of origin. For example, many popular musical genres (e.g., jazz, blues, rap, hip hop) had their origin in the African- American community but have wide appeal beyond that subculture. Many continue to be amazed at the current popularity of rap, with its urban Black origins, with affluent White suburban teens.

Finally, music in adolescence, along with its accompanying dancing, serves as a marker of separation from adults. Part of its appeal is frankly that adults dislike it and don’t understand it. This phenomenon repeats itself with rap and heavy metal today as it has in the past with rock and roll in the 1950s or the Charleston in the 1920s. Even something as simple as a teen turning

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on the radio in the car or house serves as a separation from parents. If the radio is on, he doesn’t have to talk to his parents.

Music is powerful material, and anything powerful can be very threatening. See Box 6.11 for some examples of how music has threatened the status quo throughout history.

Content

Perhaps surprisingly, the most common theme in music lyrics over the last fifty years is being in love, although the lyrics are more sexually explicit than they used to be, for example, expressing love as lust (Hansen & Hansen, 2000). There was an increase of violent and misogynistic themes starting in the 1990s, especially in rap, punk, and heavy metal. Increasingly these themes became more mainstream, as seen when bad boy rapper Eminem (Marshall Mathers) received Grammy and Oscar awards in the early 2000s.