Abstract
AbstractThis article illuminates the musical activism of Juluka, an interracial South African band active in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. Its analyses of three songs focus on intersections between Western popular music and a Zulu song genre calledmaskanda. By examining these cross-cultural interactions in the domains of harmonic progressions, formal structures and metric and rhythmic organisation, I demonstrate that the artistic fruitfulness of the band's collaboration was a powerful rebuke to the government's apartheid ideology, which sought to segregate not just people, but even their artistic expressions.
Highlights
Caleb Mutch the grounds of indecency, blasphemy, disturbing peace, threatening the state and more (Drewett 2005, p. 55; Byerly 1998, p. 14)
The members of Juluka addressed politics cautiously and did not mention apartheid. Their very existence as a group was a challenge to the apartheid regime of racial segregation, for half the band’s members were white and the other half Zulu
They did not need to criticise apartheid with words, for they embodied such a criticism: as Johnny Clegg, one of the co-founders, recounted, ‘Juluka is the band that said on stage: “Something else is possible”
Summary
Caleb Mutch the grounds of indecency, blasphemy, disturbing peace, threatening the state and more (Drewett 2005, p. 55; Byerly 1998, p. 14). While it is perhaps unlikely that the members of Juluka knew the particular songs performed by kaDinizulu (or Rycroft’s article, though Clegg could well have encountered it in his anthropological studies), they did know at least some traditional Zulu songs, as is evidenced by their inclusion of a war song with mouth-bow accompaniment as the final track of Universal Men. It is worth noting that later moments in ‘Sky’, the song to be discussed, contain hypermetrical extensions: a fourmeasure melodic phrase is established by the chorus, followed by the soloist, but in subsequent repetitions it is occasionally expanded to encompass five and even six measures.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
