1 International crossover

The first Malagasy band to achieve international attention was Les Surfs in the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around, who had a series of chart hits in France; they sang cover versionIn pop music a cover version is a new rendition of a previously recorded song. Pop musicians may play covers as a tribute to the original performer or group, to win audiences who like to hear a familiar song, to increase their chance of success by using as of BeatlesThe Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 as part of their first tour of the United States, promoting their first hit single there, " I Want To Hold Your Hand". The Beatles were one of the most influential music groups of the rock era. Initially they affected the post and other popular songs in the French languageFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to. Les Surfs were not the first popular Malagasy musicians, however; that distinction probably belongs to Bouboul , the country's first electric guitarist, who was famous in the 1950s. Mahaleo was the next band to emerge as a major influence, beginning, in the early 1970s, to fuse soft rock music with Malagasy rhythms and instruments. Rossy arose next, touring in Europe during the 1980s and achieving limited crossover fame with the infusion of zouk and other popular genres. More recently, Tarika has become the most well-known Malagasy band, playing various kinds of folk music in a roots revival style. Other performers to achieve crossover fame include Ricky , a solo vocalist (which is unusual for Madagascar, where multi-part harmonies are more common), Tôty and Solo Miral , who fuse jazz with native vakodrazana (this fusion is sometimes called vakojazzana ).

1.1 Malagasy pop

The first genre of Malagasy pop music was watcha watcha , a benga -inspired eletric dance music from the northwest coast of the island. Imported American rock and roll, hip hop and soul, British techno, South African kwela, township and jive, Congolese soukous, Mauritian sega and Tanzanian taarab are also popular. The 6/8 salegy rhythm is perhaps the most defining characteristic of modern Malagasy music.

In the 1970s and early 80s, many locally produced records were available. Economic problems, however, shut down many of the labels, especially Disco Mad and Kaiamba . This music was sometimes known as tapany maintso (half-green, in reference to the labels of Kaiamba records) and almost totally disappeared until economic revival began in about 1992. During the period of little recording, Western pop became extremely popular, and left a lasting legacy on Malagasy music. Many listeners came to hate anything to do with Malagasy culture; though this sentiment has somewhat subsided, Western pop is still extremely popular across the island and a minor roots revival took place late in the decade.

2 Indigenous instruments

In addition to the folk instruments described below, imported Western brass and woodwind instruments, pianos, guitars and accordions are also found. Accordion virtuoso Regis Gizavo is well-known among fans of the instrument, and has worked with Ray Lema , Les Têtes Brulées , I Muvrini and Manu Dibango.

Instruments found in Madagascar include:

• Jejy voatova - a Betsileo instrument with a calabash resonator, large block frets on the neck and two sets of strings set at a ninety degree angle
• Kabosy (mandoliny) - a four to six-stringed simple guitar; leading players include Babata and Jean Emilien
• Lokanga - a three-stringed fiddle, found among the Antandroy and Bara
• Marovany - a wooden box with a set of strings on both sides, common particularly in the south; leading players include Rakotozafy , Donné Randriamanantena , Matrimbala , Bekamby and Madame Masy
• Sodina - an end-blown flute; leading players include Rakoto Frah , who appears on the 1,000 franc note
• Valiha - a kind of zither with 21 strings, traditionally made of bamboo; leading players include Zeze , Mama Sana , Tovo , Rajery , Sylvestre Randafison and Justin Vali

3 Southern Madagascar

Madagascar is home to numerous tribes with distinct cultural practices. Of these, the music of the Tulear region is most well-known in the rest of the country. Tsapika bands include township influences; prominent groups are Tsodrano , Orchestre Rivo-Doza and, most famously, Tirike . The guitarist D'Gary is also from Tulear; he is often regarded as one of the greats of African guitar, or guitar in general, ranking alongside Jean-Bosco Mwenda or Ali Farka Touré.

4 References

• Anderson, Ian. "Ocean Music from Southeast Africa". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 523-532. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. BooksEnthsiast.com

Malagasy music

<Hide>