Kwaito, hip-hop and television in South Africa: a case study of the Yizo Yizo 3 series and soundtrack

  • Musa Ndlovu
  • René Smit
Palavras-chave: Kwaito, Youth, Yownship hip hop, South Africa, TV.Yizo

Resumo

This paper presents an analysis of kwaito and hip-hop on television in South Africa. Itemploys the locally produced Yizo Yizo as a case study to explore the intertextual relationshipbetween music and television. Yizo Yizo, a reality-based drama series, was groundbreaking inpropelling the experiences of black youth onto the national agenda. In representing what canbe described as ‘authentic township experiences’, the series utilizes kwaito, and to a lesserdegree, hip-hop, as signifiers of township and ‘essentially’ black youth experiences.Soundtracks to the series utilize both genres and local kwaito and hip-hop artists feature asthemselves. The paper adopts a discursive approach to exploring intertextuality and the waysin which meanings embedded in a television series are related to music and other secondarytexts and vice versa. It provides an overview of the television series and analysis of the mostrecent soundtrack (Yizo Yizo 3) specifically, in relation to the series’ educative andeducational value.

Biografia do Autor

Musa Ndlovu
Dr Musa Ndlovu is a lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Cape Town Centre forFilm and Media Studies. University of Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
René Smit
René Smith is completing a PhD on media consumption and lifestyles, through the University of Kwa Zulu Natal (UKZN). She has published on popular culture, entertainmenteducationand gender relations.
Publicado
2016-06-02
Seção
Dossiê Temático