Written and edited by Mitch Santell
Each and every day I am amazed at the challenges and changes in the music business. Here is an interesting article I uncovered recently. Click on my name above to email me your thoughts. Tomorrow, I'll look at the other side of the music business. What is that? Real music groups that kick ass and work as a unit.
Live music? That’s so Old-fashioned, Dude!
House DJs are replacing live music and becoming the mainstream, writes Benjamin Moshatama
Shove the talented songstress off the stage. Take the microphones away from the MCs and kwaito lyricists. Even the jazz ensemble is no longer in demand.
Step aside — and make way for the new master of music.
He arrives with two turntables, a mixer, a stack of music vinyls and his outsized earphones to dish up a platter of musical delights for you.
He’s the street-smart club DJ, who is taking over South Africa’s music industry. And he’s no slouch.
The greasy-haired DJ of the ’80s has given way to a cluster of edgy, young, educated, business-minded and fast-talking youngsters who have turned the local music industry on its head.
These young DJs have taken electronic dance music, known as house, from the underground club culture to the middle of the mainstream music industry.
Although the club scene is not new — as it was pioneered by the likes of Oskido, DJ Fresh and Glen Lewis, among others, in the mid ’90s — these young clubbers have come up with a successful, leaner and meaner formula to make the genre more popular.
They have created their own up-tempo electro dance beats, giving them a kasi (township) flavour by incorporating local lyrics that their club-hopping audience can relate to.
Themba Mbongeni Nkosi was only 13 years old when he started collecting cassettes as a hobby, and took advantage of any chance to play music for his friends and family on his parent’s humble cassette player. Little did he know that his hobby would lead him to becoming one of the most popular DJs in Johannesburg.
Ten years later, Nkosi dropped out of university, in his second year of studying marketing, to pursue a career as DJ Euphonik.
Any teenager or young working professional can easily relate to the 25-year-old Euphonik.
He dresses in simple gear — a skateboarding T-shirt, designer jeans and sports sneakers. When he speaks, his sentences are punctuated by the word “dude” and he constantly fiddles with his BlackBerry phone.
The BlackBerry keeps him in touch with his office and updates him on his busy daily schedule.
Without it, Euphonik wouldn’t cope. After releasing six compilation albums, three of his albums reached gold status, each selling more than 20000 units. He has become one of the forerunners on the local club music scene.
These spin meisters are competing on an equal footing with other genres and their music is readily available at most local music outlets.
“We are the modern superstars,” says Euphonik, with a confident swagger.
“We are like what kwaito stars were back in the day. Every second kid I come across wants to be a Euphonik. They are no longer interested in being Mandoza. These young kids love the cars we drive, envy the places we eat in and want to stay in the places we live. Dude, to be a DJ is now a cool thing,” he says.
Euphonik started out as a DJ in high school. After dropping out of university, his career began taking off.
“I left varsity because I wasn’t enjoying what I was studying. I was playing at gigs almost every night and I couldn’t completely focus on my studies. I made the brave decision to quit and pursue a career being a DJ.”
While he was doing club gigs, he hooked up with the DJs Kent and Tumi and they started remixing songs for the likes of poet Ntsiki Mazwai, and producing their own beats, which became popular in clubs. Among their most popular remixes are Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time and Masingita.
DJ Clock (Kholile Gumede), is another newcomer to the music industry but with his album, First Tick, he reached gold status in just under four months.
Highly successful DJs insist on being well paid when playing in clubs and at corporate gigs. Most of them charge between R6000 and R9000 an hour or even more, depending on the gig.
They often play at more than one club a night, which increases their earnings.
And, unlike in the past, when clubbing only happened over weekends, these dudes are in demand throughout the week.
“We treat this career like a business. I have set up my own office. I have people to help market me as a product, and a personal assistant who is responsible for my bookings,” says Euphonik.
The DJs are in demand because events promoters and club owners have noticed that it’s cheaper and logistically easier to hire them.
“They have also noticed that, unlike musicians, we actually play different kinds of music. For example, if you ask Afro-pop band Malaika to play at an event, they are limited to their repertoire and they are limited to performing for a few hours. We play a variety of tunes and we don’t mind playing for more than two hours,” said Euphonik.
These groovemasters don’t have their eyes set exclusively on the club scene. Many are employed at influential radio stations such as youth station YFM, 5FM and Metro FM.
Euphonik himself presents a radio slot on 5FM, titled My House, where he plays his house tunes and is able to inform listeners of the latest gigs and update them on the house music scene.
Unlike conventional musicians, who are largely indebted to a record label, only earning royalties from sales, these people are individual entities in their own right.
Some have even opened their own music labels to record and produce their own music, while signing other musicians and DJs.
Lately, house is even doing well at local music awards.
In yesterday’s Metro FM Musical Awards, popular house outfit Rhythm Elements received three nominations for their album The Offering.
Arthur Mafokate, one of the pioneers of kwaito music and owner of 999 record company believes that the dominance of house over kwaito is over-hyped.
“I hate the politics of this subject because the two genres are related. Kwaito is influenced by dance music.
“Yes, house music has become more popular, but I think there is space for everyone — both house DJs and musicians of other genres,” he says.
Lance Stehr, owner of Ghetto Ruff Records, is more direct: “I think this is a sad phase for the industry because you no longer find artists on stage but these DJs behind their turntables.
“What’s also unfortunate is that they are inclined to play their own music (on radio stations). It’s rare to find, in any other country, more than five club DJs working at national radio stations and promoting themselves.”
Call it whatever you like, but this genre has become possibly the most democratic musical style around, absorbing unknown beat makers all across the country, who have surpassed the likes of kwaito kings DJ Sbu and DJ Cleo.
Just like hip-hop eclipsed other musical forms in popularity in the US, and became the money-making machine for many “heads from the hood”, for restless creative youngsters, house music is the next step to being a modern-day capitalist in South Africa.
You need no huge studio or budget, no manager, no middle man — only a dance floor in the middle of a party.
