Radio Africa

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Reporting live from Kenya, we search for African pop that is making its way into global dance music. The barriers to producing high quality audio are reduced to merely owning a laptop. Now, regional artists are reaching a global audience. We speak to Blinky Bill, leader of the dance/pop/hip-hop group Just A Band, about their unique sound that attracts fans from Tokyo to Nairobi. And we also speak to Jeff Maina, lead designer at Waabeh, the Spotify for African content. FEATURING Fuse ODG – Azonto (learn the dance!) Sauti Sol – Sura Yako Diplo – Crown Just A Band – Looking for Home Just A Band – Life of the Party Just A Band – Probably for Lovers Just A Band – Huff + Puff Just A Band – Dunia Ina Mambo Charlie’s high school a cappella group – Give Up the Funk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I am hot. I'm hot. It's hot to try.
0:04.2	Welcome to a very special episode of Switched On Pop. Because today we are reporting live from the
0:10.2	field. My partner Charlie Harding is in Nairobi and he is going to tell us about the latest sounds
0:18.8	on the Kenyan radio dial. Yeah, great to join you. I'm here at the iHub
0:24.8	Technology Incubator in Nairobi. Sorry for the background noise. Quite alright. So I came here and I
0:30.5	thought I'm gonna try to find that unique Kenyan sound that's gonna make it into all the DJ's
0:37.2	playlists this year. Right? There's all these blogs saying yeah, he's African music. It's gonna
0:42.4	be big this year. Well, I was sorely wrong. And it's not for lack of great music. So the other
0:48.6	night, right, I'm going out and I'm dancing with all my friends here. Yeah. And what are they playing
0:53.2	in the dance club? Right. Obviously. I imagine some local Nairobi musicians perhaps. Plenty of
1:00.6	Beyonce. No surprise. Of course. We're gonna hear Western pop music everywhere we go around the world.
1:07.1	Yeah, true. But more interesting was around 11 o'clock at night, the Western music sort of slows down
1:12.7	and more regional African music picks up. The first thing we do, my colleagues get up to dance to
1:18.8	this tune, a Zonto.
1:35.9	Now, Zonto is a traditional Ganan dance. But the song from this guy Fuse Odie G, he's a UK-based
1:44.2	artist. He's a Ganan descent. And he's basically sounds like Europop with maybe some more traditional
1:51.2	rhythms. Okay. So we're all dancing along to this song. But it's not just this one too. We're
1:59.7	hearing Nigerian music. We're hearing South African music. And of course, we're hearing some of
2:03.5	the best Kenyan pop music. What do you think that tells us about the state of international pop music
2:09.7	today? For me, it's so clear the barriers and the differences of national and regional music.
2:15.6	Uh-huh. Just don't hold up. And that there's significant cultural exchange going on between
2:20.7	all worlds of pop. Yeah. It really got me thinking about how our international sounds being
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