Tag: global trends

How a Global Pandemic Pushed Amapiano to the World

June 13, 2024

You can’t search for South African music today and not have several Amapiano artists appear in your results. The genre has surged across global dance floors thanks to collaborations, the growth of digital music streaming, and an era where viral dance challenges brought exciting snippets of its distinct sound to the world.

But how did these elements collide in an era of social distancing and get Amapiano on the world stage?

Socially distanced connections

Amapiano was already growing by the time March 2020 COVID-19 restrictions hit South Africa and the rest of the world. It more than doubled its 34 million Spotify streams in 2019 to 102 million by the end of the first year of lockdown. Pandemic-induced separation caused a countrywide craving for connection. Live-music events were banned, so artists couldn’t tour or perform.

Four years before South Africa’s first lockdown, less than half of the country owned smartphones. By the end of 2019, this number rose to 92%. More people than ever before were connecting to the internet. Even though data costs were high, mobile internet use grew as the 18-to-24-year-olds who predominantly use social media in South Africa spent more time online. This has translated to the streaming industry, too, where 84% of all Amapiano streams on Spotify are on mobile, and 18-to-24-year-olds account for 40% of all Amapiano streams. 

Youth culture goes digital

As young people in South Africa looked for new ways to connect with friends, dance challenges sparked their imaginations. The fact that they couldn’t groove didn’t stop them from combining their flair for dance, with Amapiano tracks that were trending on messaging apps. Social media gave them a way to show off their moves and get others to imitate them.

Social media dance challenges that emerged in 2020 like the #Johnvuligatechallenge, JazziDisciples dance challenge, and the #Amanikinikichallenge marked key moments when youth culture connected with and amplified the genre through social media.

This moved the genre from its underground club roots and across the country when commercial radio picked it up. Dancer and Amapiano hitmaker Kamo Mphela says, “Music doesn’t move without dance. I don’t think both can exist without each other.”

Before Amapiano entered the streaming era, artists got their music out however they could. “We were selling CDs hand to hand,” says DJ and music producer DBN Gogo. Artists tapped into social media to brand themselves, share new tracks, and sell merchandise. But monetizing their work remained a challenge.

Artists take their work online

Pandemic restrictions on live events meant many artists lost their income. Some resorted to loans or selling their equipment to make ends meet. And young emerging musicians were worse off because they didn’t have the networks or the savings to support themselves.

Amapiano artists found new spaces for their music to thrive—think Major League DJz Amapiano live balcony mix. Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa had to cancel the highly anticipated Scorpion Kings live show in 2020, so they launched PianoHub TV to keep the vibes going.

“Thank God for platforms like Spotify where anyone, anywhere in the world, can go and search the music, so it can reach the people that way,” says DBN Gogo.

Spotify also supported artists in a number of ways, including adding a feature that allowed musicians to use their Spotify profiles to raise money to support themselves. Spotify further platformed Amapiano culture by documenting the sound’s global growth through a documentary titled Music that Moves and promoting Amapiano playlists to wider audiences.

Fan-made playlists are a telling sign of the impact this had. In 2019 there were fewer than 800,000 playlists that featured Amapiano tracks. In 2020 this grew to just under 1.2 million playlists, then to over 2 million playlists in 2021.

Outside of the income artists make on streaming platforms, Spotify puts them in the driver’s seat with data tools that let them see how their music is taking off. “Technology is making things way easier to stream and download. That’s probably the reason why [Amapiano’s] moving so quickly,” says Aymos. DJ Lady Du reflects that with streaming platforms, “it becomes easier for us to get bookings outside [of South Africa].”

Lockdown era collaborations takes Amapiano international

Hits like Kabza De Small’s “Sponono” featuring Afrobeats kings Burna Boy and Wizkid made Amapiano’s explosion on the world stage inevitable. Amapiano grew its international reach even further when Davido featured on Focalistic’s “Ke Star” remix. Vocalist Sha Sha topped off the genre’s international moment in this era by bagging the “Best New International Act” award at the 2020 BET Awards.

Collaborations and accolades like these kicked off Amapiano’s fusion with genres like Afrobeats and took South Africa’s township sound to a new level.

A music movement supported by a digital revolution

Even in a country like South Africa, where many lack internet access, music lovers will find ways to party to their favorite Amapiano tracks. This is how an online culture fostered during a global pandemic, helped turn Amapiano into one of SA’s biggest exports.

Amapiano’s Origins: Taking Root at Home, Then Spreading Seeds Globally

June 13, 2024

The sound of Amapiano is like prolonging moments when, in South African townships, the sounds of everyday living merge with the music that forms the bedrock of daily life there. Before dawn, a hymn sung while sweeping might match the rhythm at a nearby lala vuka (all nighter). One afternoon, the rain overhead might intensify to match an aunty or uncle’s favorite part of a jazz song. Nobody’s dog could bark an ad-lib to the bassline playing in a passing car. Amapiano plucks what is almost in the township air and originates sound, dance, fashion, lingo, and overall culture from that.

Amapiano was invented in the townships at the outskirts of South Africa’s towns and cities. Known as kasi in slang (derived from the Afrikaans lokasie), the township was created by apartheid spatial planning to house Black people. Dikasi (plural) were designed to be barren places where nothing would grow. But instead, South African townships became greenhouses for culture—especially music—to germinate, take root, and become sources of life for the oppressed people living in them. 

Amapiano borrows its keys and melodies from jazz and gospel, its drums and tempo from house music and diBacardi, while Kwaito loans Amapiano its basslines and harmonies.

Jazz music grew in South Africa in step with its popularization in the United States. It became not only a source of entertainment, solace, and escape, but also an instrument with which Black South Africans fought against apartheid. You need only look at the names of some current and past Amapiano acts to make the connection between jazz and Amapiano—Jazzi Disciples, Mapara A Jazz, and Mr. Jazziq are a few. One of the other ways Amapiano borrows its melodies from jazz is by reworking South African jazz standards. Focalistic does this to great effect by using the melody from guitarist Jimmy Dlulu’s “Winds of Change” on his Tiya Mfana release with DJ Tshegu.

Gospel music, especially choral, has been composed and sung in churches, homes, at funerals, celebrations, and anywhere else a higher power needs to be summoned in South Africa. Some of Amapiano’s most popular singers developed their voices in the church. For example, vocalist Babalwa M, who frequently collaborates with Private School Amapiano Dean of Faculty Kelvin Momo, told True Love magazine, “I lived in a Christian house, I obviously used to go to church. So, we used to have youth services and we’d have an opportunity to showcase your talents.” 

Kwaito music was the sound of a generation both witnessing and creating a nonracial, democratic South Africa. The slowed-down dance songs from across the world matched with young South African vocalists in the 1990s, and together they created Kwaito, the iconic sound of the country’s liberation.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Afro, Deep, and Tribal House became popular as access to records from outside the country became increasingly available and affordable. This helped to develop South African dance music’s groove sensibility. And when diBacardi entered the scene, mushrooming from Pitori, the greater Pretoria area, it also grew into an important influence on the South African dance music scene.

The styles of music that Amapiano borrows from are still popular in South African townships and continue to cross-pollinate, influencing each other while remaining firmly grounded in their own respective histories.

“The last time we saw a uniquely South African genre paint a clear picture of the state of South African groove culture was with Kwaito spearheaded by youth. What Amapiano has managed to bring with it from the ground up locally and eventually globally,  is admirable, not only from a music point of view but also cultures’’, says Phiona Okumu, Head of Music at Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa. 

At first, Amapiano had a divisive ethos. Little was known about this movement and the music at the center of it by observers outside its circles of initiates. Generally, Amapiano punters were notorious for brazenly pursuing epicurean excess. Kabza De Small and Lehleza released the “Amabele Shaya Remix” music video as the tide began to turn for this style of music. For outsiders, that music video was a glimpse into a culture that was seductively inaccessible. “Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda / Amabele ebusweni bendoda” (roughtly translated to “breasts on a man’s face”) a tank-topped, sweaty Leehleza repeats the song’s refrain to partygoers in a nondescript warehouse. Many wanted to be in that video, while also happy to be a safe distance away.

The greater South African population had another taste of this sweet taboo in Semi Tee, Miano, and Kamu Dee’s “Labantwana Ama Uber,” in which the chorus is a thinly veiled reference to drug use and sex. Amapiano music was being lapped up and danced to by all South Africans and creeds by the time Mapara a Jazz, Colano, and Ntosh Gazi’s “John Vuli Gate” became a hit single, dance trend, and the reason for the most modest and upright citizens of the Rainbow Nation to collectively clutch their beaded necklaces and kiss their teeth in disapproval.

Since then, the Amapiano movement has evolved in different directions. Its dominance of mainstream music in South Africa and entry into the global dance music arena made it necessary for producers and vocalists to consider different styles of Amapiano to fit different occasions. 

Over the past decade, Amapiano has watered and warmed the wildest dreams of its artists, most of whom come from the underserved townships at the outskirts of the Gauteng province’s cities. And where there were scraggly shrubs of careers not so long ago, there is now a forest of artists, managers, choreographers and dancers, stylists, content producers, and other professions beginning to thicken all thanks to the Amapiano movement.

And while Amapiano developed musically, it also sprouted branches in dance, fashion, lingo and overall culture that have made Amapiano a movement. This is what is truly exciting about the movement, is that while the music continues to spearhead it, the Amapiano movement is fast becoming a way of living founded on the idea of making something from very little, backing dreams with hard work, and having the time of your life while doing it.

Why Amapiano Wins Hearts and Minds as It Travels the Globe

June 13, 2024

Amapiano is a force to be reckoned with on the global music stage, and this is thanks to its influence on popular culture. “Spotify provides a home for Amapiano to grow, with 55% of the music getting played from outside South Africa,” says Phiona Okumu, Head of Music at Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The heroes of the Amapiano movement are also getting deserved recognition. From Uncle Waffles being the first Amapiano DJ to perform on the Coachella main stage to singer-songwriter Tyla earning a Grammy, this distinctly South African dance music is now being adopted into mainstream culture across the world.

As the sound evolves and its thriving culture spreads globally, it’s important to unravel the crucial moments that stimulate this global success and contribute to Amapiano’s over 1.4 billion streams in 2023 on Spotify. 

Africa embraces Amapiano

Amapiano got to the rest of the world by traveling through Africa. As this township house sound came to define Johannesburg’s nightlife culture, musicians all over the continent tuned in. Its journey began with West and East African artists experimenting with the sound. Some visited South Africa to work with local Amapiano acts, while others added and infused Amapiano elements to their productions.

“The results of these experiments show up in our data today. Cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Lusaka, and Gaborone stream the most Amapiano outside of South Africa,” says Phiona.

Ghanaian producer Juls released “Soweto Blues” with South Africa’s Busiswa. Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage gave “Dangerous Love” the Amapiano treatment with a remix from South African producer De Mthuda. Rema’s hit single “Woman” brings Amapiano drums and saxophone together with kicks and percussion from Afrobeats. Wizkid’s “Bad To Me” and “2 Sugar” are songs that showcase the sonic embrace between the two genres.

“Back then these songs gave more artists across the continent permission to make Amapiano their own,” says Phiona. Amapiano’s DBN Gogo says this is important because music can build a shared understanding across cultures “when people make it their own and try to merge it with their own genres.”

This is how Bongopiano emerged from Tanzania, where Swahili lyrics on hypnotic dance beats give Amapiano an East African twist. Moroccan DJ Flomine says, “When you mix Amapiano with traditional Moroccan music [Gnawa], it connects people. And when you introduce live instruments, people just love it because they feel like we are exchanging culture.”

Television takes Amapiano from SA to the USA

The small screen enhances Amapiano’s cultural currency. South African drama series like Youngins use Amapiano soundtracks to bring the rebellious and trendy energy of the high school drama to life. The show’s dance scenes wouldn’t work without the log drum-peppered beats, which capture the show’s spirit and make it relatable to its Gen Z audience.

Amapiano also anchored Kokota, a drama set in Mamelodi, one of the Pretoria townships where the genre is said to have started out. The show follows the story of a preacher’s son and his journey of becoming a musician. Its use of location, Sepitori (a form of Setswana slang), and fashion celebrate the genre by showing life from an aspiring artist’s point of view.

“Directors are taking advantage of the genre’s international influence by telling stories about the origins of Amapiano,” says Phiona. “South Africa’s favourite music export is also infiltrating TV shows in North America.”

The Jennifer Hudson Show host and EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson got South Africa hyped when the Biko’s Manna band taught her the viral “Tshwala Bam” dance. Who can forget Tyla’s U.S. TV debut performance of “Water”on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon? Yet another moment that cemented Amapiano as a global cultural entity.

True to its essence even when far from home

Amapiano influences culture across the Atlantic thanks to events like AmaFest, an Amapiano festival for South African and British performers in the United Kingdom. Afro Nation has now made Portugal a destination for African and European Amapiano fans alike thanks to its Piano People stage. 

These shows are a sign of the impact the South African sound is making on the global music scene. Their ongoing success reflects how much different cultures love the sound, even if they may not understand the lyrics. Small wonder, then, that among the top countries streaming Amapiano in the last 10 years are the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and France. 

The genre’s earliest artists, like MFR Souls, Kelvin Momo, and Scorpion Kings, along with its latest pioneers, DBN Gogo, Uncle Waffles, and Kamo Mphela, are headliners at these festivals, showing that Amapiano’s global reach won’t stop it from staying true to its roots and essential sounds.

Phiona’s reminder is that it’s thanks to “dedicated artists that the genre’s borrowed blend of diBacardi, Kwaito, and jazz are here to stay. While it influences and adapts to different regions, Amapiano will always call South Africa home.”

Piano to the World: Amapiano’s Evolution From Underground Movement to Global Sensation

June 13, 2024

Today Amapiano is everywhere. Some of the world’s biggest artists, including Beyoncé, have spoken about being Amapiano fans and have put out tracks featuring Amapiano artists. In 2023, Beyoncé even played Amapiano legend Uncle Waffles’ song “Tanzania” during her Renaissance world tour. The genre also got its first Grammy in 2024, with Tyla’s “Water” taking home the “Best African Music Performance” award. 

But that popularity wasn’t always guaranteed. When Amapiano first emerged on the streets of South Africa’s townships a decade ago, many derided it. It was seen as something for people from low-income areas and was given little chance of achieving mainstream popularity. As more and more young people learned about the genre and spread its songs and videos via social media, however, it was set firmly on the path from underground movement to global sensation. 

“Young people have always driven big shifts in the music sector,” says Jodie Tabisher, Spotify’s Artist, Label and Partnerships Manager for South Africa. “But with Amapiano, their impact has been and continues to be especially significant.” 

It’s an assertion borne out by Spotify’s internal data, which shows that 40% of Amapiano streams in 2023 came from people aged 18 to 24. A further 22% came from people aged 25 to 29. It hasn’t hurt that the biggest artists in Amapiano are more or less the same age as their listeners. Even a genre pioneer like Kabza De Small, for example, is only 31 years old. 

For those artists, Amapiano hasn’t just provided a chance to connect with young artists, though. It’s also provided an avenue where they can express themselves fully and authentically. 

“Amapiano was kind of like a breath of fresh air, the light of the sun, something that was close to our heart,” says 27-year-old rapper Focalistic, who plays in the Amapiano space. “Just being from Africa, we’re obsessed with saying things in our own voice right now. It’s how you make an imprint.” 

“Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a front-row seat to Amapiano’s early growth and its later global explosion,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa. “One of the things that’s always stood out to me, and which I think has helped the genre achieve its global standing, is just how distinctly South African it sounds, looks, and feels. Just by being authentic, Amapiano music and artists channel the most infectious parts of Mzansi dance culture.” 

While young people have been the biggest drivers of Amapiano over the past decade, its appeal now transcends racial and social boundaries. 

“When you get to America, the biggest thing from South Africa is Nelson Mandela, and that’s because he stood for his country,” says Focalistic. “That’s what Amapiano is: It’s about representing where we come from, and I think it’s a blessing that people relate to it around the world. At the same time, they can hear the emotion. I think emotion sells it more than just words.” 

Young Stunna, the 26-year-old singer best known for his hit singles “Bopha” and “Adiwele,” concurs. 

“With Amapiano we’re united,” he says. “I was inspired by artists like Aymos because they knew how to put a story inside the music.”

That ability to unify people might help explain why, despite its growing international popularity, Amapiano remains most popular in its home market. According to Spotify data, 55% of all Amapiano streams globally came from South Africa in 2023. It also made up 78% of all streams in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Ultimately, it’s unlikely that Amapiano would have achieved its current trajectory if its creators didn’t produce tracks with infectious dance beats. As singer and dancer Kamo Mphela explains, you cannot separate Amapiano from dance. 

“Music doesn’t move without dance,” she says. “That’s personally my perspective that it is its own language, it’s very universal, I don’t think both can exist without each other.” 

Backing this assertion up is the significant role that things like Amapiano dance challenges on social media have played in driving the genre’s popularity. There have been instances of dance challenges’ leading to the discovery of Amapiano songs and artists and assisting in increasing their streaming numbers, such as Tyla’s “Water” or Uncle Waffles’ “Yahyuppiyah.” 

Small wonder, then, that many of today’s most popular Amapiano artists are multitalented. 

“When you look at South African music,” Mphela adds, “there are people who sing the cha-cha, there are the DJs, and there are the wafflers who DJ and dance, but there are quite a few that actually sing and dance, so that’s just me being smart about it and that’s the gateway for me.” 

Phiona concludes that much of Amapiano’s success is built on what came before it. But, she adds, the success of Amapiano artists should also give South Africans confidence in their own ability to succeed.  

“Never would we have thought that piano would go to the places that Kwaito dreamed of all those years ago. It’s happening because we stuck to our guns,” she says. “We know we’re fly, we have the dances, we have the songs, we have the beats, we have everything.”

Spotify’s Michael Krause Talks Industry Trends Ahead of Our Music and Podcasting Summits in Germany

April 17, 2024

On April 18 and 19, experts from across the audio industry—including artists, publishers, and marketing and advertising professionals—will once again gather in Berlin for Spotify’s All Ears Podcast Summit and All Music Friday Summit.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in panel discussions and workshops and see performances and live podcast recordings. This year’s events follow the tremendous success of our 2023 summits in Berlin, during which All Ears made history as the country’s largest-ever podcast event.

For the Record sat down with Michael Krause, Spotify’s General Manager for Europe and the managing director for the summits, to talk audio trends, the music and podcasting scenes in Germany, and more.

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s summits?

I’m very excited to bring the industry back together and continue our conversations around the future of the audio field in Germany. I’m of course partial to seeing some of my Spotify colleagues talk, like Sten Garmark, who oversees the user experience and has worked on countless new functionalities we’ve rolled out these past few months, or Sulinna Ong, who leads our global music editorial teams. But most importantly, I believe it’s the energy in the room, the unexpected discussions that will pop up, that make it so thrilling.

What are some of the most exciting and interesting trends you’re seeing in audio, locally and globally? 

What’s got me excited is the new ad formats launched over the past few months and the enthusiasm we’re seeing here in Germany, as well as across Europe. We’re innovating on the ad experience, we’re introducing better targeting with tools like Streaming Ad Insertion, we’re helping advertisers reach podcast listeners at scale with the Spotify Audience Network, and we’re proving the impact of digital audio advertising with Spotify Ad Analytics. Most recently, we launched call-to-action cards (CTA cards) in Germany as a new format that makes podcast ads interactive for the first time, with an experience that enables listeners to hear, see, and click.

Germany is one of the largest music markets globally. How is Spotify contributing to that growth? 

It’s always been our mission to create connections between fans and artists the world over. We’ve lowered barriers to entry into the music field, and we’re seeing more and more artists thriving on Spotify. What is of the utmost importance to me, and to my teams, is that we enable the new professional artists of tomorrow to find success on our platform. Our programs such as EQUAL and RADAR are empowering them to do just that. 

You’ve been at Spotify for seven years now. What are some of the most impactful changes you’ve witnessed during your tenure?

When I joined Spotify, podcasts were barely a thing. Seven years later, we’ve grown into podcasting, audiobooks, and have just launched courses in the U.K. But most importantly, we’ve gone from being available in 80+ countries then to 180+ countries today. Over 600 million people use Spotify—that’s so many opportunities for audio creators to connect to new fans. I’ve always been a big believer in the company, but the growth, the developments have taken us all on an incredible journey. And I’m even more excited for what lies ahead, both as a user and as a bandmate.

Podcasts are huge in Germany. How do you think the local podcast market will continue to evolve? Any specific goals you have?

We’ve launched so many tools and functionalities over the past year that enable creators to develop and engage with their communities, and it’s rewarding to see them start using them. Video podcasts are one of those, and it’s such an incredible, different way to interact with fans. We want to continue to allow all of our creators to develop and grow their audiences on our platform to give them the flexibility of deciding what makes the most sense for their content and for their communities.

You’ve just unveiled the Loud and Clear report for 2023 in Germany. What’s most compelling to you, and what opportunities lie ahead for Spotify in Germany? 

What’s most impressive to me is that German artists were discovered for the first time in 2023 more than 6.7 billion times. That’s a staggering amount of discoveries, and that directly goes back to our mission—to unlock the potential of audio creators at large and connect them to their audiences worldwide. And what’s both an opportunity and a massive success is that revenues generated by Spotify for German artists grew by 14% from 2022 to 2023, whereas Germany’s music industry revenues at large grew by 7% in that time frame. Spotify revenues in that market grew twice as fast. We have become a key driver and contributor to the German music industry, and we’re excited to continue partnering with artists and creators in Germany to further develop their careers.