College Party: Culture shock and freedom of campus life
What does football star Paul Pogba, basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal and singers Janet Jackson and Shakira have in common, besides none of them being from South Africa?
Well, the four are the latest international celebrities who have caught the amapiano bug. This is the insanely popular South African dance music genre that was developed in the townships and is as proudly South African as the Kreepy Krauly pool cleaner, introduced in Springs in 1974 – or Computicket, the world’s first computerised ticketing system founded by Percy Tucker from Benoni.
While you will not hear much of the actual piano sounds, the name literally means “the pianos” and it has exploded with international tours, music awards, festivals, and countless playlists.
Describing its unique, infectious style, TikTok’s Africa music operations manager Yuvir Pillay said there is an instrument in amapiano called a log drum. It is that log drum sound what Pogba and the other celebrities are dancing to.
More hits on platforms like TikTok translate to money for the SA composers and singers of amapiano.
This is welcome; hopefully there’s more innovations coming from our enterprising young South Africans
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