Urban Groovers hopeless

Urban Groovers hopeless

By Musavengana Nyasha

LAST week’s issue of The Sunday Mail carried an article by Grace Shamu that made interesting reading. The article looked at the reasons why the urban grooves music genre CDs are not selling.

A number of reasons were put forward for this failure. Some of the reasons that are said to have come out of research were said to be lack of patriotism, love of foreign music and jealousy of the population of Zimbabwe towards local artistes.

The article itself proved how fallacious the reasons were. In the article, RTP Record Company was said to have local gospel and museve musicians topping their charts. Research proves this to be also true of other major record companies like Gramma and ZMC.

Zimbabweans love their music to bits, and of this there can be no doubt. That is why they do not spend their hard-earned cash on urban grooves. If you will permit me to say so, urban grooves are not Zimbabwean. Singing over foreign music in Shona does not make it local. The fact that it is Zimbabweans singing the music still doesn’t make it local.

Some Zimbabwean bands are now playing ndombolo music. Does that make the music ours? Of course not. The reason why urban grooves music will never make it commercially is because it is a poor imitation of the original, the original being the R’nB and ragga from overseas. This fact will not change no matter how many awards you give to the Flash Gordons of Zimbabwe, no matter how much Power FM promotes the urban grooves genre.

Urban grooves are not a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe in spite of what some may believe. Ask Tich Mataz or Fortune Muparutsa. Tich used to be a part of a group called Raider whilst Fortune had some great airplay of his album Wheels Of Fortune. Questions can also be raised on what happened to groups like The Rusikes. All these people, in my opinion, played what is now called urban grooves.

I will say it again, Zimbabweans love their music. Zimbabwean music is music that the people of the nation can identify with. It is music based on the traditions and cultures of the country fused with the cultures of migrant workers that came into the country and became part of us. This is the reason why the likes of Alick Macheso are making money and why they will be around for a long time.

The language used in songs is of little significance. What is most important is the beat. Some of Simon Chimbetu’s most popular songs were sung in English. "One Way" is a song that comes quickly to mind. If his rhythm had been R ’n B and the language Shona, the music would not have gotten anywhere.

Some people may believe that a compilation of re-done or "urbanised" Zimbabwean classics such as "Ruva Rangu" and "Kudakwashe" will be popular amongst all ages but, in my opinion, these classics will lose their eternal charm if given the urban grooves treatment. When these songs are given an R’nB or ragga flavour, the singers are forced to give inflections and feelings that are alien to both the songs and the singers.

You see, another reason why the likes of Rocqui and company will never make it commercially is because they can never be R Kelly’s. To sing like R Kelly, you need to be the great, great, great grandson of a slave. The rhythm and blues must flow through your veins. This is the same reason why a musician who grows up in the posh suburbs of Zimbabwe can never be a sungura musician. He or she just doesn’t have the right background. This is a fact.

One of the most unfortunate things about some of the musicians of the urban grooves genre is that some of them are quite talented. Rocqui is a perfect example. Unfortunately, he is wasting his talents on the wrong type of music. Rocqui and company should set their sights on creating a new hybrid of music that is decidedly Zimbabwean or African at the very least.

I am reminded of the days of Ilanga and Talking Drum. Those were exciting times when musicians were willing to experiment. That is the way to go for these "urban groovers". If these musicians are not willing to take this direction, I see them leading frustrating lives where they have to wait for national galas and the benevolence of one night club owner to pay the bills.

Urban grooves have, for about five years now, been amusing and mildly entertaining but they will never amount to much. They have no depth. The music has no future. This is why each of the musicians can never hold a live show by themselves. They have to come together for single shows because they simply don’t have the crowds. It is time for a reality check.

It doesn’t matter whether the musicians try and re-create the East Coast and West Coast — like musical wars, nor does it matter if they create stories of how they fell in love with mermaids, the music won’t sell.

It doesn’t matter how much they sound like the Whitney Houston’s and Ja Rules, etc, of this world, that won’t sell their music. Better marketing won’t help either.

Crying foul or accusing me of jealousy (!) won’t help either. These are just the stubborn facts - Sunday Mail
Musavengana Nyasha is a former Radio 2 (now Radio Zimbabwe) DJ and writes from Harare
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