Zimbabwe's Music Trends Follow Curious Courses

 Written by Fred Farai Nyakudanga FFF 

Greetings to you all musical fans, artists and entrepreneurs. While we rue the folding of record bars and flee markets that distributed music throughout the country, music still is finding it's way to the people.

The biggest question would be how? Some youngsters would be quick to lead very simple theories of social media. Would social media work out to an upcoming musician fresh from Wedza who soon after completing school relocates to the City and stays with his Uncle in a small lodging. How would he cajole our designer conscious Journos who are used to the company of popular artists who smell nice with his rudimentary dressing, to hype him. On social media people download music from popular artists whose works they have enjoyed before I have observed.

Recently Mambo Dhuterere has a new offering (Zvinodzimba Ngoni) trending, his fans are busy sharing the melodious tunes on Social Media. They are also spreading positive reviews of his songs. I also downloaded a few tracks to listen for different reasons though. This route though does not benefit the musician but the network and application providers. Musicians would rather maintain relevance than make a living out of their sweat. 

This year alone WhatsApp distribution of big artists started from January with Winky D's album Njema. It went viral with songs like Ijipita, Extra Terrestrial and Njema the title track. Selmor Mtukudzi on 31 January colourfully launched  Dehwe Renzou on ZTV, Mandidzimbira hit music charts and her other track became a public favourite because of its messages that pumps self esteem to those looked down upon to sing (Zvine Basa Reyi). A lot of fans got satisfied  Selmor is a perfect heir to her late father Dr Oliver Mtukudzi's music. I spoke to my UK based friend Silas Chikengeza who was an ardent follower of Selmor's late father Dr Oliver Mtukudzi. Silas concurred with a host of fans who are pleased Selmor will maintain the legacy of Tuku Music. On the same note he showed me proof of his purchase from online store ITunes of Selmor's songs.

Our country then got into Covid 19 lockdown restrictions that affected live shows and night clubbing which helps musicians with promotion of their songs. But despite the lockdown embargo on entertainment Jah Prayzer dropped his 2020 album Hokoyo which got bankable views on YouTube with songs like Munyaradzi and Mukuwasha.

The biggest question remains how does music from new artists get the attention of the public. Many musicians believe urban populations as a solution to their quest for popularity. What I have observed is eccentric and outside many musicians’ scope. The urban population of late is unpredictable, it has access to various mediums that it is not easy for them to put a song on repeat on their own. There has to be some influence from somewhere for the urban population to like a song.

How much time does the urban population have on a new song especially from an unknown artist when they can access a million other songs on YouTube, international music channels Trace, Channel O and MTV. There are also various music downloading applications accessible from mobile phones. But influence of media campaigns, promoters, Djs force the urban folks to check on hyped songs. On their own urban people hardly trend a song. There are songs that are regularly played in Kombis but they have never made it on the national music map. Hwindi President songs are almost an anthem of the short urban routes. His Hwindi colleagues play his songs but the effort seems is falling short to please the urban citizens. 

Dancehall counterpart to Hwindi President, Killer T has made it big. Where is the difference, there is a population that confer hit songs in Zimbabwe and this section of people are the ones that brought Killer T up. Because the urban dwellers have an elitist tendency they stand out as the kingmakers but I have a different hypothesis.

I will reveal how an urban family’ spend their day. In the morning children go to school while their parents go to work. If the parents do not have a car of their own they use Kombis. The Kombi crew plays music at a very loud volumes making a lot of noise, because of the din the music has less effect on them. They get to work possibly they are on PC or they work with the public say passport or police officers. Children come back from school and they fight for TV channels nothing serious comes to their ears besides the quarrels. At night the family is together and the fight over which channels extends to the father and mother who want to share between soccer and Indian movies respectively. A day is gone everyone is tired they sleep.

During the weekends the father goes to refresh with friends at a local pub. The DJ plays music from his friend musicians and some that is trending. The father falls in love to some tracks on the DJs playlist and afterwards he asks for the songs from his friends on WhatsApp. The mother goes to church and the praise and worship plays copyright songs from trending gospel songs and she also falls in love with some of the songs again she goes on WhatsApp and asks for those songs from friends.

The family decides to hold a party to celebrate. The hired DJ then plays trending songs again while the family celebrates. The family finally unites and dance together. Soon after they start playing the songs together and they continue to download the songs on Social Media .

While we were growing up we had one radio that used vinyl disks. Our parents were so strict with entertainment. There were no remotes and we would have to be content with what our parents used to play. Bundu Boys, Tuku, Simon Chimbetu and many yesteryear stars. New music was easily purchasable from record bar shelves. The merchandise was neatly displayed. The urban people determined hits back then.

Today the rural citizens are now the ones making most of these songs hits. Weather my postulation might sound personal I still stand by it. Parents in rural areas work from their compounds. They play their radios working within. They play songs of their choice and they listen to radio stations a lot. Because of time they spend on their own and with full control of their entertainment. On radio they make song requests too. Since the liberalization of telecommunications every household has a mobile phone. It has become easy for the rural folk to call to the radio on call in programmes.

The look east policy has made gadgets affordable so radio, DVD and TV sets have become cheap to acquire. The land redistribution has also upgraded the rural communities with meaningful incomes that are giving them buying power. To enjoy those gadgets the rural population buys their own content because the ZTV transmission is not accessible in many terrain locations. DVDs with vernacular languages and music are popular. Entertainment is scarce in the rural centres but once in a while musicians visit Townships to play. The music means a lot to the rural families who in turn push songs on the national map because the rural population stretches wide on our national landscape.

Piracy is the main distributor of music to the rural folk. Mbare Musika is the capital of the informal distributor. What aids the back door music business is that most farmers from the 3 Mashonaland provinces deliver their produce there. They are lured by the urban demand. The illicit entrepreneurs take advantage by providing all the rural farmers' needs under one market. New music is introduced to the farmers. Large volumes of CDs move while musicians fight for recognition on social media. Because of the unobtrusive state of Mbare Musika very few musicians like to be associated with the market. Musicians like to fill up HICC, they want to be at showy markets disregarding where their livelihoods can be improved.