Meintjes Critical Review

In meintjes, he writes about the album Graceland and the implications of social collaboration.  The composition, production, and the use of language from different artists, the different styles and how they have been combined.  He also questions the degree to which this album and musical collaborations are successful in reaching equality between artists. He also talks about the political implications of the album and how his work has been interpreted, criticized, or used in South Africa and other recording companies.

            Meintjes writes about the dynamic ambiguity of the album that allows his work to be interpreted differently among critics and audiences.  Simons point in Graceland was to create a social musical collaboration rather than a political statement.  Would his music have had a larger impact on South Africa and its state if it had taken a more direct stance in black inequality?  Or does music really act a conduit between cultures and ideas that there is no need to take one?   

Coplan Critical Review

This passage by Coplan goes into the history of black popular music in South Africa.  It starts at Cape Town and the apex of diamond mining and goes all the way to the apartheid in the 1950s.  Throughout history, blacks and coloreds were segregated in slums and "locations," away from the white populace, that lead to the rise of black urban centers.  These centers became a central forum of musical expression for blacks, which lead to such genres as makwaya, marabi, and mbaqanga.  The governments response to these social advancements and political gains by removing them from these urban centers.

Due to racial segregation that kept blacks separated from whites, they developed there own music and genres that became very popular among South Africa and internationally.  Despite many interventions by the government and capitalism to prevent a united people, they were able to use music for themselves.  How did racism help facilitate the expression of black popular music?  Why was it such a powerful catalyst?