Kadongo Kamu Changing With Modern Society
In the New Vision of Friday 29the September 2006, Joseph Batte and Elvis Basudde Kyeyune wrote two interesting articles on the decline of Kadongo Kamu.
By Joel Isabirye
In the New Vision of Friday 29the September 2006, Joseph Batte and Elvis Basudde Kyeyune wrote two interesting articles on the decline of Kadongo Kamu. Their romantic argument was that technology and an urge for making money had watered down standards of authentic, original and traditional Kadongo Kamu. For illustration they compare artistes like Abdu Muraasi with the late Christopher Sebadukka two icons of the new and old era.
Although Batte and Basudde’s claims are reasonable from a purist perspective, my observation is that they missed the real points as to why music changes. It does because society changes. A changing audience and issues popular within them are reasons why musicians take bold steps to trying new things.
Those who succeed are the ones who identify with and successfully adjust to change. Therefore the acoustic, performative and compositional reforms mentioned in their articles are not just experimentalist but rather have a lot to do with social processes.
For example, in order to reach a wider audience that was suddenly spending more time on radio than buying tapes, Kadongo Kamu artistes shortened their songs. From seventeen minutes they came to between three and four minutes. This change got them airplay but affected their extensive narratives.
Similarly, with increasing popular celebration of urban life in Uganda where records are consumed the most, the motif of persistent social problems became outdated replaced by love themes.
With political stability in Uganda dancing was popularised, many hits in the late 1990s used to emerge from the clubs. Fred Sebatta, conscious of the nightclubs’ role
in making hits asked DJ Rota to remix his earlier records with Jamaican B-Side instrumentals to get club play.
Later, to make it more acceptable he asked producers Steve Jean, Kenneth Lubwama and Travis Kazibwe to make the music ‘better’ by adding drum kicks. They fused Kadongo Kamu with afro-Caribbean and hip-hop beats and changed it to what it is now. All other artistes followed suite.
These impurities notwithstanding, Kadongo Kamu is still popular in its old format based on a lot of folklore. Although digital production has cost the genre its natural sounding flair there is no sign of audience protest.
New or reformed Kadongo Kamu artistes such as Abdu Muraasi, Mathias Walukagga and Kalule Tadeo are even more accepted than all the old guys combined. They sell records, get requested on radio and get airplay.
Batte and Basudde did a very good job as critics. But because society has changed, it is hard to see contemporary Kadongo Kamu releases returning to its old form. Vintage songs will still appeal to public memory and retain popularity in that way. New types which are a negotiation between ngoono vocal patterns of the old era and the issues and beats of the new era shall have extreme popularity but shorter life spans because of the volume of releases.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with changes in Kadongo Kamu, it is society which is changing and that is where the point of analysis should begin.
In the New Vision of Friday 29the September 2006, Joseph Batte and Elvis Basudde Kyeyune wrote two interesting articles on the decline of Kadongo Kamu. Their romantic argument was that technology and an urge for making money had watered down standards of authentic, original and traditional Kadongo Kamu. For illustration they compare artistes like Abdu Muraasi with the late Christopher Sebadukka two icons of the new and old era.
Although Batte and Basudde’s claims are reasonable from a purist perspective, my observation is that they missed the real points as to why music changes. It does because society changes. A changing audience and issues popular within them are reasons why musicians take bold steps to trying new things.
Those who succeed are the ones who identify with and successfully adjust to change. Therefore the acoustic, performative and compositional reforms mentioned in their articles are not just experimentalist but rather have a lot to do with social processes.
For example, in order to reach a wider audience that was suddenly spending more time on radio than buying tapes, Kadongo Kamu artistes shortened their songs. From seventeen minutes they came to between three and four minutes. This change got them airplay but affected their extensive narratives.
Similarly, with increasing popular celebration of urban life in Uganda where records are consumed the most, the motif of persistent social problems became outdated replaced by love themes.
With political stability in Uganda dancing was popularised, many hits in the late 1990s used to emerge from the clubs. Fred Sebatta, conscious of the nightclubs’ role
in making hits asked DJ Rota to remix his earlier records with Jamaican B-Side instrumentals to get club play.
Later, to make it more acceptable he asked producers Steve Jean, Kenneth Lubwama and Travis Kazibwe to make the music ‘better’ by adding drum kicks. They fused Kadongo Kamu with afro-Caribbean and hip-hop beats and changed it to what it is now. All other artistes followed suite.
These impurities notwithstanding, Kadongo Kamu is still popular in its old format based on a lot of folklore. Although digital production has cost the genre its natural sounding flair there is no sign of audience protest.
New or reformed Kadongo Kamu artistes such as Abdu Muraasi, Mathias Walukagga and Kalule Tadeo are even more accepted than all the old guys combined. They sell records, get requested on radio and get airplay.
Batte and Basudde did a very good job as critics. But because society has changed, it is hard to see contemporary Kadongo Kamu releases returning to its old form. Vintage songs will still appeal to public memory and retain popularity in that way. New types which are a negotiation between ngoono vocal patterns of the old era and the issues and beats of the new era shall have extreme popularity but shorter life spans because of the volume of releases.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with changes in Kadongo Kamu, it is society which is changing and that is where the point of analysis should begin.