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Soukous (from French language , "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and the Republic of the Congo (formerly French Congo). It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, with faster dance rhythms and bright, intricate guitar improvisation, and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo, song structures and longer dance sequences.
Soukous fuses traditional Congolese rhythms with contemporary instruments. It customarily incorporates , double bass, , clips, and Brass instrument/woodwinds. Soukous lyrics often explore themes of love, social commentary, amorous narratives, philosophical musings, and ordinary Struggle session and . Singers occasionally sing and croon in Lingala, Kikongo, French language and Swahili language and bands often consist of a primary vocalist accompanied by several Backing vocalist.
Tonally, soukous is shaped by specific configurations in the bass, midrange, and treble frequencies. The bass is generally accentuated by +3 dB to yield a deep, full-bodied low-end that supports the groove. The midrange, especially around the 700 Hz frequency, is often left flat or enhanced by as much as +6 dB. Meanwhile, the treble frequencies are either left flat or attenuated slightly by -3 dB.
In Matonge, the rhythmic guitar typically accompanies mid-tempo vocal passages, with the bass and Bass drum accentuating the dominant beats, while guitarists emphasize the offbeats (one and two and three and four and). During vocal performances, the lead guitarist lays down a groove that underpins harmonized call-and-response singing, often intensified by an echo effect, producing an auditory experience sometimes described as a hypnotic auditory experience.
The percussion section is characterized by an unyielding, fast-paced beat, most commonly referred to as cavacha, with the drummer taking the lead in Audio signal shifts for the guitarists to match the lead player's transitions. Soukous chord progressions mainly rely on the I, IV, and V chords. Common progressions include:
During the early 1960s, a surge of young Congolese musicians sought to speed up the slow tempo of Congolese rumba, which precipitated the emergence of soukous. Artists began incorporating faster rhythms, and prominent guitar improvisation, often characterized by high-pitched, fast-paced lines imbued with more heightened African motif. The drummer shifts to the high-octane cadence, wherein the clave rhythm shifts to the snare drum, singers engage in rhythmic chanting ( atalaku), and lead guitars take center stage.
The origins of soukous are a matter of dispute, with divergent attributions and viewpoints. Clément Ossinondé, a Congolese musicologist specializing in Congolese music, accredits Franco Luambo and TPOK Jazz with pioneering soukous, citing his odemba-inspired style, known for its fast tempo. American Music journalism Morgan Greenstreet similarly emphasizes Franco's role in transforming the sebene, previously a transitional instrumental bridge between vocal sections, into the principal element of Congolese music. Franco's odemba style is described as "rougher, more repetitive, and rooted in rhythms that moved the hips of dancers at Kinshasa's hottest clubs". In contrast, British music historian Gary Stewart locates the emergence of soukous as a musical and dance genre in Brazzaville. He credits guitarist Jacques Kimbembe and the formation of the Super Band in 1964, later renamed Orchestre Sinza Kotoko, with introducing the soukous style to Brazzaville's nightlife in 1966. This group supplanted the traditional boucher style popularized by Les Bantous de la Capitale. Congolese journalist Audifax Bemba notes that Orchestre Sinza distinguished itself through singers with conversational vocal delivery, an expressive lead guitar that elevated the sebene, and a celebratory Time signature rhythmic foundation. Kimbembe's lead guitar technique doubled Eighth note, diverging from the conventional Quarter note pattern, and introduced freestyle dance sections conducive to festive movement. According to popular anecdotes, the band's energetic performances routinely incited audiences to dance even before entering the venue.
During the late 1960s, Congolese musicians, much like their Western contemporaries exploring dances such as the twist and the The Stroll, developed a succession of new styles to maintain their competitive edge. In 1968, Orchestre Sinza innovated the genre further with a variation known as mossaka. The group's popularity surged following the addition of singer Pierre Moutouari, leading to their first Paris tour and a recording contract with the French label EMI. Meanwhile, Nico Kasanda, widely known as Nico Kasanda, introduced kiri-kiri, a new dance form inspired partly by the Western jerk. Kiri-kiri compositions followed the standard Congolese rumba format before introducing a decelerated sebene marked by a brief guitar flourish, allowing dancers to showcase novel steps. Nico's 1968 composition "Kiri-Kiri Mabina Ya Sika" ("Kiri-Kiri, the New Dance"), performed with his group Fiesta Sukisa, became the defining anthem of the style. Other artists and bands soon followed suit. Les Bantous de la Capitale experimented with hybrids, such as Pamelo Mounk'a's "Masuwa", billed as soukous-kiri-kiri. Tabu Ley Rochereau introduced the jobs, a dance he described as blending the jerk with Congolese rumba. His 1968 composition "Martin Luther King", a tribute to the slain civil rights leader, exemplified this style. Notable for its ambitious references, including to Johnny Hallyday and Mao Zedong, and its eight-minute runtime, the track employed a Western-style drum kit and pointed toward the gradual obsolescence of traditional percussion setups like Maraca. This period saw a proliferation of new dance styles rooted in Congolese rumba, including Jeannot Bombenga's mambenga, Joseph Kabasele's yéké yéké (described as the "eighth phase of the rumba"), and others such as Apollo 11. Docteur Nico would later reflect, "We invent a new dance style every day". Despite this stylistic diversification, Congolese rumba remained the genre's foundational framework.
During this epoch, the dominant orchestras in Congolese music included TPOK Jazz, African Fiesta National, African Fiesta Sukisa, and Les Bantous de la Capitale, followed closely by Négro Succès, Conga Succès, and Cobantou. For Nicolas Kasanda, who led African Fiesta Sukisa, the period marked a creative high point. Simultaneously, Orchestre Sinza emerged as a paradox: a second-tier orchestra within Congo-Brazzaville that nonetheless became the top-selling African act in the Pathé Marconi catalog from 1969 to 1974. Orchestre Sinza's innovations played a crucial role in shaping the so-called "third school" of Congolese music, most notably influencing the band Zaïko Langa Langa. In 1974, Zaïko Langa Langa adopted many of Orchestre Sinza's stylistic features: a brisk Time signature tempo, eighth-note doubling in the sebene, free-form dance, and celebratory rhythms. The sebene in Zaïko Langa Langa's "Éluzam", often cited as the "birth certificate" of the third school, mirrored the sebene from Orchestre Sinza's 1969 track "Vévé".
Concurrently, the M'Bamina orchestra ventured to Paris before seeking audiences in Italy in 1972. Pablo 'Porthos' Lubadika arrived in Paris in 1979 with singer Sam Mangwana through Lomé, Togo, after recording under the name the African All Stars. Mangwana, having collaborated with nearly every prominent figure in Congo, relocated to Abidjan in 1978 to pursue better opportunities. He formed a new band of Congolese economic exiles, who became regulars in Parisian session bands. The African All Stars' breakout hit, "Suzana Coulibaly," released on 31 December 1979, featured "simple, repetitive rhythms" at a faster tempo than traditional Congolese rumba. Mangwana's exclamation "soukous sophistiqué" as Lokassa Ya M'Bongo and Rigo Star crafted a "rock-solid" sebene solidified the record's direction, initiating an independent musical movement targeting the international market. As their influence grew, the African All Stars adapted the fast, rough stylings of youth bands in Brazzaville and Kinshasa, introducing this new tempo globally.
Although often misidentified locally as Makossa, a Cameroonian genre, Congolese music was widely embraced in Nigeria. According to Vanguard entertainment editor Amadi Ogbonna, Igbo highlife was the dominant musical form prior to the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). After the conflict, many young men, including former members of the disbanded Biafran Armed Forces, turned to music for livelihood and emotional relief. These musicians, initially performing under pseudonyms and adopting Congolese styles, found popularity with audiences through energetic dance routines and infectious rhythms, particularly those of TPOK Jazz. One notable incident involved the defection of Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe's band members while on tour in London. Upon returning to Nigeria, they formed the Ikenga Super Stars of Africa, pioneering a new hybrid genre known as Ikwokirikwo. This style blended Igbo highlife with soukous, emphasized by elaborate guitar work and rhythmic swaying movements. The 1970s saw the rise of additional bands—such as the Oriental Brothers International, Peacocks Guitar Band International, Prince Nico Mbarga, and Rockfill Jazz—that also popularized this fusion. Although many artists continued to label their music as "highlife", it bore clear influence from Congolese rhythmic and structural elements. By the 1990s, the popularity of soukous in Nigeria had reached unprecedented heights. The Mail & Guardian, in an article published on 17 October 1997, reported that "Nigerian soukous" had become a staple of the country's musical programming. Soukous cassette tapes were widely circulated, particularly in southwestern Nigeria, and the genre was frequently heard on street cassette players and in public entertainment venues. Some Nigerian youths, enamored with the style, even began singing in French despite lacking comprehension of the language.
Soukous experienced widespread diffusion across southern Africa, where it was both adopted and adapted into various offshoots, such as Zimbabwe's immensely popular sungura genre.
In the article " Champeta is Liberation" : The Indestructible Sound System Culture of Afro-Colombia, journalist April Clare Welsh observes, "When 'música Africana' swept the region during the '70s and '80s, sound systems were instrumental in forging a collective diasporic identity for Afro-Colombians in a society deeply divided by race and class". African musicians like Kanda Bongo Man, Nico Kasanda, Diblo Dibala, Ikenga Super Stars of Africa, M'bilia Bel, and Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens became local celebrities, forging a "pan-African connection that was, at the time, largely unknown to many Africans within the continent". Local musicians began replicating the arrangements of Congolese artists like Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay, Tabu Ley Rochereau, M'bilia Bel, Syran Mbenza, Lokassa Ya M'Bongo, Pépé Kallé, Rémy Sahlomon, and Kanda Bongo Man. Homegrown musicians such as Viviano Torres, Luis Towers, and Charles King became renowned for this. This movement led to the creation of champeta, a genre rooted in "soukous guitars, bass, drumming, and dance". Due to its overtly sensual dance moves and its association with the "Black Below", champeta was derided by the White Colombians upper classes. However, for Afro-Colombians, it was an assertion of their cultural identity and resilience. DJs often renamed African songs with Spanish titles, composed champetas in the Palenquero language (a creole fusion of Spanish and Bantu languages such as Kongo language and Lingala), or phonetically distorted the original names. For instance, Mbilia Bel's "Mobali Na Ngai Wana" became known in Colombia as "La Bollona". Champeta emerged as a new marker of Black identity along Colombia's western coast and evolved from a peripheral genre to a mainstream national phenomenon. During the Super Bowl LIV halftime show on 2 February 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, Shakira danced to Syran Mbenza's "Icha", a song colloquially referred to as "El Sebastián" in Colombia, which spawned the #ChampetaChallenge on social media platforms worldwide.
The influx of Zairean artists to France catalyzed the proliferation of Parisian studios as epicenters for soukous production, with an increasing reliance on synthesizers and electronic instruments. Some artists continued to record for the Congolese market, but others abandoned the demands of the Kinshasa public and set out to pursue new audiences. A sizable Zairean community established itself in France and Switzerland, with Zairean artists conducting training programs in the country. Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast, short tracks conducive for play on dance floors worldwide, popularly known as kwassa kwassa, after the dance moves popularized in his and other artists' music videos. This music appealed to Africans and to new audiences as well. Artists like Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabélé, Tchicl Tchicaya, Jeannot Bel Musumbu, M'bilia Bel, Yondo Sister, Tinderwet, Loketo, Rigo Star, Nyboma, Madilu System, Soukous Stars and veterans like Pépé Kallé and Koffi Olomide followed suit. Soon Paris became home to talented studio musicians who recorded for the African and Caribbean markets and filled out bands for occasional tours. Diblo Dibala and Aurlus Mabélé dominated the clubs with "Africa Moussou", creating a hyperactive style of super-speed soukous, dubbed TGV soukous by fans, alluding to France's high-speed trains.
Swede-Swede, an ensemble exclusively employing traditional instruments, operates out of Belgium, while Les Malo, primarily comprising former instructors from the National Institute of Arts in Kinshasa, specializes in Afro-jazz in Lyon. Tshala Muana gained prominence in Africa and Europe for her Luba people traditional hip-swaying dance known as mutuashi, which make waves across African stadiums and earned her the moniker of "Queen of Mutuashi". Other female vocalists such as Déesse Mukangi, Djena Mandako, Faya Tess, Isa, and Abby Surya garnered widespread recognition.
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