Information about Bikutsi
Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaounde. The word 'bikutsi' literally means 'beat the earth' or 'let's beat the earth' (bi- indicates a plural, -kut- means 'to beat' and -si means 'earth'.) The name indicates a dance that is accompanied by stomping the feet on the ground.
Bikutsi is characterized by an intense 6/8 rhythm, and is played at all sorts of Beti gatherings, including parties, funerals and weddings.
Beti gatherings fall into two major categories:
In its modern form, bikutsi is very popular, and rivals makossa as the country's most renowned style. Popular bikutsi first appeared in the 1940s with the recording of Anne-Marie Nzie. Some twenty years later, the style was electrified with the addition of keyboards and guitars. The most popular performer of this period was Messi Me Nkonda Martin, frontman for Los Camaroes and known as "the father of modern bikutsi music". In an effort to translate the sound and spirit of traditional bikutsi music to more modern terms, Messi incorporated the sound of a balafon into the electric guitar by linking together the guitar strings with lengths of cotton cord. Played in this way, the electric guitar sounded similar to the balafon. The music itself, then, was only slightly altered, while the image and outside perception of bikutsi music was changed enormously. Other bands during this time, such as Les Vétérans, were also popular.
International acclaim began in 1987 with the formation of Les Têtes Brûlées by Jean Marie Ahanda. The late guitarist of Les Têtes Brulées, Zanzibar, invented the trick of damping the strings of his guitar with a strip of foam rubber to produce the music's characteristic balafon-like thunk. (The balafon is a marimba-like instrument that is widely used in African folk music.) More modern performers include Jimmy Mvondo Mvelé and Mbarga Soukous.
Present-day bikutsi as performed by artists like K-Tino, Racine Sagath and Natascha Bizo is sometimes regarded as controversial. It has been criticized for the perceived sexual content of its lyrics and dancing style. In this respect bikutsi resembles mapouka from Côte d'Ivoir, which is also considered indecent by many Africans. The main difference is that present day bikutsi is still often performed by female artists who use it as a means of self-expression in a traditionally male-dominated society.
Thus a singer like K-Tino, self-styled femme du peuple (woman of the people) sees herself as having an important part to play in the emancipation and liberation of the women of Cameroon.
Among the current crop of artists are Patou Bass and Ovasho Bens, the promoter of a dance and philosophy called "zig zag". His first album is composed not only of Cameroonian traditional rhythms but also West Indian rhythm (zouk) and Jamaïcan-style reggae.
HighLife is a cellular automaton similar to Conway's Game of Life. It was invented in 1994 by Nathan Thompson.
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Bikutsi is characterized by an intense 6/8 rhythm, and is played at all sorts of Beti gatherings, including parties, funerals and weddings.
Beti gatherings fall into two major categories:
- Ekang phase: the time when imaginary, mythological and spiritual issues are discussed
- Bikutsi phase: when real-life issues are discussed
In its modern form, bikutsi is very popular, and rivals makossa as the country's most renowned style. Popular bikutsi first appeared in the 1940s with the recording of Anne-Marie Nzie. Some twenty years later, the style was electrified with the addition of keyboards and guitars. The most popular performer of this period was Messi Me Nkonda Martin, frontman for Los Camaroes and known as "the father of modern bikutsi music". In an effort to translate the sound and spirit of traditional bikutsi music to more modern terms, Messi incorporated the sound of a balafon into the electric guitar by linking together the guitar strings with lengths of cotton cord. Played in this way, the electric guitar sounded similar to the balafon. The music itself, then, was only slightly altered, while the image and outside perception of bikutsi music was changed enormously. Other bands during this time, such as Les Vétérans, were also popular.
International acclaim began in 1987 with the formation of Les Têtes Brûlées by Jean Marie Ahanda. The late guitarist of Les Têtes Brulées, Zanzibar, invented the trick of damping the strings of his guitar with a strip of foam rubber to produce the music's characteristic balafon-like thunk. (The balafon is a marimba-like instrument that is widely used in African folk music.) More modern performers include Jimmy Mvondo Mvelé and Mbarga Soukous.
Present-day bikutsi as performed by artists like K-Tino, Racine Sagath and Natascha Bizo is sometimes regarded as controversial. It has been criticized for the perceived sexual content of its lyrics and dancing style. In this respect bikutsi resembles mapouka from Côte d'Ivoir, which is also considered indecent by many Africans. The main difference is that present day bikutsi is still often performed by female artists who use it as a means of self-expression in a traditionally male-dominated society.
Thus a singer like K-Tino, self-styled femme du peuple (woman of the people) sees herself as having an important part to play in the emancipation and liberation of the women of Cameroon.
Among the current crop of artists are Patou Bass and Ovasho Bens, the promoter of a dance and philosophy called "zig zag". His first album is composed not only of Cameroonian traditional rhythms but also West Indian rhythm (zouk) and Jamaïcan-style reggae.
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| Genres of African popular music |
|---|
| Afrobeat | Apala | Benga | Bikutsi | Chimurenga | Highlife | Isicathamiya | Jit | Jj | Kwaito | Kwela | Makossa | Marrabenta | Mbalax | Mbaqanga | Mbube | Morna | Palm-wine | Ra | Rumba | Sega | Soukous/Congo/Lingala | Taarab |
A music genre is a term that describes the process of dividing popular music into categories. Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language.
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Motto
"Paix - Travail - Patrie" (French)
"Peace - Work - Fatherland"
Anthem
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"Paix - Travail - Patrie" (French)
"Peace - Work - Fatherland"
Anthem
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The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
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Yaoundé, Cameroon
Yaoundé, Cameroon
Map of Cameroon showing the location of Yaoundé.
Coordinates:
Province
Population (2005)
- City 1,430,000
- Urban 1,430,000
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Yaoundé, Cameroon
Map of Cameroon showing the location of Yaoundé.
Coordinates:
Province
Population (2005)
- City 1,430,000
- Urban 1,430,000
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balafon (bala, balaphone) is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone.
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Makossa is a type of music which is most popular in urban areas in Cameroon. It is similar to soukous, except it includes strong bass rhythm and a prominent horn section. It originated from a type of Duala dance called kossa, with significant influences from jazz, ambasse bey,
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
- -
- The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949.
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1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
- -
- The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949.
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Anne-Marie Nzié is a Cameroonian bikutsi singer. In the 1940s, Nzié began performing bikutsi, the music native to her home in central Cameroon. She signed with Pathé Marcom Records.
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keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano, which is used in nearly all forms of western music. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical,
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The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990
Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII
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1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990
Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII
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Les Têtes Brulées are a Cameroonian band known for a mellow pop version of the bikutsi dance music. Their name literally means the burnt heads in French, but more likely is meant to imply mindblown or hot heads.
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balafon (bala, balaphone) is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone.
..... Click the link for more information.
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K-Tino (Cathérine Edoa Ngoa) is a Cameroonian singer who shot to fame in her home country with her energetic bikutsi music. This music from the central part of the country, around the capital Yaoundé, became very popular in Cameroon during the 1980s and 1990s.
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Mapouka, also known under the name of Macouka, is a traditional dance from the south-east of the Ivory Coast in the area of Dabou, sometimes carried out during religious ceremonies.
This dance has daring choreography that can be very sexually suggestive.
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This dance has daring choreography that can be very sexually suggestive.
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Zig zag, spelled as one word, two words or hyphenated, sometimes with a second capitalized "Z", can refer to a number of things:
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The term 'reggae' is sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, although the word specifically indicates a particular music style that originated after the development of ska and
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African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music.
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Benga is a musical genre of Kenyan popular music. It evolved between the late 1940s and late 1960s, in Kenya's capital city of Nairobi. In the 1940s, the African Broadcasting Service in Nairobi aired a steady stream of soukous, South African kwela, Zairean finger-style guitar and
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For other uses, see high life (disambiguation).
HighLife is a cellular automaton similar to Conway's Game of Life. It was invented in 1994 by Nathan Thompson.
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Background
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Kwela is a happy, often pennywhistle based, street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.
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Makossa is a type of music which is most popular in urban areas in Cameroon. It is similar to soukous, except it includes strong bass rhythm and a prominent horn section. It originated from a type of Duala dance called kossa, with significant influences from jazz, ambasse bey,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Marrabenta is a form of Mozambican dance music. It was developed in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, formerly Laurenco Marques. The name was derived from the Portuguese rebentar (arrabentar in the local vernacular), meaning to break.
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