Mbaqanga

Mbaqanga is the township popular music of South Africa, developed in Johannesburg's Black urban communities from marabi and kwela roots into a tight, commercial studio style. Its classic sound pairs a deep male "groaner" vocalist with female harmony singers over a cyclic electric band: choppy, interlocking guitars, a prominent melodic bass guitar, drums and occasional saxophone or organ. Songs are short, repetitive and built for dancing, with call-and-response choruses in Zulu. Named after a maize-and-bean porridge, meaning everyday sustenance, mbaqanga dominated South African record sales from the mid-1960s into the 1980s.