Continuity and change: Impact of global popular culture on urban grooves music in Zimbabwe

Abstract

One of the key objectives of the seventy-five per cent local content policy introduced by the government of Zimbabwe at the turn of the century was to stem the negative effects of globalization. Although the policy has been credited for growing the arts industry there are concerns that some artistes are importing foreign modes of artistic expression thus undermining the broad objectives of the local content policy. Youthful urban based musicians born out of the local content policy have been accused of imitating Western Hip hop musicians whose style and lyrical content are at odds with local cultural values. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of Western popular music and global culture on the music of selected Zimbabwean urban grooves musicians. The paper also seeks to interrogate the manner in which these urban grooves musicians negotiate global cultural texts in order to suit their own contexts. The study utilizes a combination of qualitative discourse and content analysis to glean insights from the music of three ‘popular’ and controversial musicians who are all products of the local content policy, namely Maskiri, Stunner, and Nasty Trix. The observation made in this paper is that although urban grooves musicians largely reflect the contours chalked by global popular culture they also draw from their local context and experiences to enrich their music.