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Histoire du kuduro

The roots of Kuduro can be traced to the late 80's when producers in Luanda, Angola started mixing African percussion samples with simple Calypso and Soca beats to create a style of music then known as "Batida". European and American electronic music had begun appearing at the largest open-air market in all of Africa, Roque Santeiro market, which attracted Angolan musicians and inspired them to incorporate their own musical styles.[3] An Angolan MC, Sebem, began toasting over the this and is thus credited with starting the genre. [4]

The name itself is a word with a specific meaning to location in the Kimbundu language, which is native to the northern portion of Angola. It has a double meaning in that it also translates to "hard ass" or "stiff bottom" in Portuguese, which is the official language of Angola. Kuduro is also a type of dance where, typically (like Ragga, some forms of hiphop, and other afro-based musics) the female dancer protrudes her bottom and swings it sensuously to the rhythm of the hard-hitting Kuduro beat. As for the males, they pop-lock, breakdance and also move sensual. The kuduro dancing is similar to Dancehall dancing of Jamaica. It is mostly influenced by Zouk, Soca, and Rara (Haitian music genre) music genres. It also combines Western house and techno with traditional Angolan Kilapanga and Semba music[5] As Vivian Host points out in her article, despite the common assumption that "world music" from non-Western countries holds no commonalities with Western modern music, Angolan kuduro does contain "elements in common with punk, deep tribal house, and even Daft Punk."[6]It is thus the case that cultural boundaries and limitations within the musical spectrum are constantly shifting and being redefined. And though Angolan Kuduro reflects an understanding and, further, an interpretation of Western musical forms, the world music category that it fits under tends to reject the idea of Western musical imperialism.[6] The larger idea here is that advancements in technology and communications and the thrust of music through an electronic medium have made transcending cultural and sonic musical structures possible. According to Blentwell Podcasts, Kuduro is a "mixture of House, Hip Hop, and Ragga elements,"[7] which illustrates how this is at once an Angolan-local and global music. Indeed, this "musical cross-pollination"[6], as Vivian Host calls it, represents a local appropriation of global musical forms, such that the blending of different musics creates the music of a "new world."