Joe Boyd: belief

Transcript context

…I know I can still go hear Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert, but are those Zulu musical traditions still alive and vital today, or are they just ossified? I think, like many places, you have the invasion of technology. You have the invasion of the drum machine, you have the invasion of people being able to listen to anything from anywhere in the world. So, traditions all around the world have taken a hit, but they still exist. I’ve been to South Africa a few times, but not for many, many years. I can’t claim to be completely up-to-date on what’s going on today in KwaZulu-Natal culturally, but I’ve seen footage of classes in schools in Durban who sing fantastic Zulu harmonies every morning before they start classes. I think the traditions seem to be alive, but I wouldn’t claim perfect knowledge of that. Now, some of my friends will argue that what is called world music — it’s a bad name, but you know what I mean — that maybe it peaked between the 1960s and 1990s. That the initial impetus of commercialization gave a lot of people market access or the ability to buy a guitar, but at some point, it becomes over-commercialized, and we’ve exhausted or mined out the sources of creativity in other countries, and that today is less interesting. Do you agree or disagree?…

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