Township refusals (for containment): engaging the cultural production of Sepitori s Amapiano through a Black (Sonic) Studies curatorial lens

Maledu, Amogelang

Township refusals (for containment): engaging the cultural production of Sepitori s Amapiano through a Black (Sonic) Studies curatorial lens

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Michaelis School of Fine Art

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Amapiano is one of South Africa's most popular musical exports. As a musical practice, Amapiano falls under the “genre” of Electronic Dance Music (EDM), more specifically, House music. Amapiano's global acclaim and exponential growth is aided by how popular culture is consumed in the 21st century: the internet. Its musical reverberations can be heard from the local minibus taxi to the ubiquitous viral internet sensations and dance crazes on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). The popular, collective musical practice named Amapiano, is a musical osmosis, referencing a plethora of other sounds and musical traditions, many contextual to South African music history, some global in their innovations. This research explores Amapiano that specifically comes from Pretoria in relation to a Black Sonic Studies lens. The research looks at Amapiano from Pretoria within the scope of the city's lingua franca, Sepitori, to also consider the sociolinguistics embedded in the cultural praxes inherent in Amapiano from Pretoria. The research is not interested in a genealogical historical study of Amapiano, nor is it interested in an ethnomusicological approach to the music. The research exists within an interdisciplinary framework of visual culture studies where Amapiano is investigated through its phonic materiality within the broader paradigm of critical discourses such as Black Sonic Studies, curatorial practice and the dynamism of contemporary digital media and how it influences artistic cultural production in South Africa. The lens in which the research looks at Amapiano moves beyond the music as just entertainment or party/dance music (which is often how it is referred to) and treats the musical practice as part of a complex series of sonic ontologies of Black being. Here, the idea of sonic Black ontologies is investigated through township refusals read in the innovations of Amapiano, embedded within Pretoria's sociosonic cultural character.

Keywords

Fine Art

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Collections

Masters

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