1. Santino Le Saint, “Maria Don’t Call Me” from Rage of Angels, 2020, England, Rock/R&B.
2. Do As Infinity, “真実の詩 (Shinjitsu no Uta)” from TRUE SONG, 2002, Japan, Rock. 
3. KeBlack, “Elle veut pas me laisser” from Appartement 105, 2018, France, Hip-Hop/Rap.
4. Mgarimbe, “Sister Bethina” from Sister Bethina, 2013, South Africa, Kwaito. 
5. Max Hurrell, “Zol” from Zol, 2020, South Africa, House.
6. FEDUK & mishlawi, “Исповедь (Ispoved)” from Исповедь, 2020, House/Hip-Hop.  
7. Kanye West, “Jesus Walks” from The College Dropout, 2004, Chicago, Rap.
8. Robin Henkel, “Take Me for a Ride in Your Mustang Rita” from Slippery Like a Watermelon, 2017, San Diego, Blues.
9. Lepa Brena, “Lagarija lagara” from Luda za tobom, 1995, Yugoslavia (as she identifies), Turbo-folk.  
10. Remzie Osmani & Nexhat Osmani, “Luj qyqek” from Gjerdani i dashurisë, 2015, Kosovo, Albanian folk music.

In curating this playlist, I realized a common theme – many of the songs I chose were referencing or including older sounds or themes in their newer music. It seems fairly obvious that most music draws on previous genres, songs, or sounds in order to create something new. It is interesting, though, the ways in which these specific songs interact with their history. Many interact across genres, similar to the hybridity that we primarily focused on in class – transnational, or transcultural. Some, though, also call upon older sounds from their own genre, and mix it with more contemporary forms. Hybridity was a large focus of our readings, and one that particularly resonated with me – the social, political, and cultural interplays that have evolved as a result of globalization are evidenced by the increasing hybridization of “world music.” In the interest of remaining within the scope of this essay, though, I will focus on examining the different ways in which the specific songs I have chosen interact with older musical elements – whether they come from cultures or nations that are ‘other’ to the musician’s own point of reference, or simply from an older time period.

Discussions involving hybridity – particularly when concerning transnational and transcultural diasporas – are always complex. Su Zheng describes diaspora as, “neither the individual experience of postmodern transcendence and hybridity celebrated by elitist intellectuals and artists, nor the collective experience of postcolonial pain and loss described in ethnographies and migration studies,” but rather a combination of the two (2010, 47). She seems to claim – correctly, I think – that one cannot study hybridity without recognizing the socio-political reasons for or implications of it, which I will do my best to identify throughout this essay. 

The first song in my playlist, “Maria Don’t Call Me”, displays a hybridity between newer-wave R&B and an older soft-Rock sound. Santino Le Saint references his rock influence through a consistent guitar melody and solo towards the end of the song. The beat is fairly simple, quiet, and unobtrusive; allowing the guitar to really drive the non-vocal sounds. All of the other elements, though, seem very on-par for a ‘new-age R&B’ song – the sonic signifiers of which are his soulful main and backing vocals, and the beat. 

“真実の詩 (Shinjitsu no Uta)”, a rock-folk song by Japanese band Do As Infinity, is the second song on the playlist. I picked this song to follow “Maria Don’t Call Me” for its rock elements – it features a very ‘western’ style of rock drumming, and there seems to be a guitar in the background as well. Where it differs from the Le Saint song, though, is that the rock elements themselves are the more ‘modern’ element to the music. The majority of the instrumentation conveys an older, traditional Japanese sound – using what sounds like an electronically modified Koto and Kokyu, both string instruments. 

The following song in the playlist, “Elle veut pas me laisser,” is a Congolese-French Hip-Hop song. Although quite different from “真実の詩 (Shinjitsu no Uta)” in genre, I think both are quite upbeat, with a focus on their respective percussive elements. In KeBlack’s song, though, the modern element of his music is the Hip-Hop beat, whereas the older sound comes from Congolese Heritage. Considering the influence that Cuban music had in the DRC, Afro-Cuban melodies and brass are particularly obvious, if not entirely surprising (Cantor 2021). There is a percussive element that sounds similar to a Djembe. The drumming is quiet during verses and gets progressively louder through the chorus, and KeBlack frequently switches between singing and rapping. This song really encapsulates, for me, the most obvious form of hybridity – a “blend” of western music (Hip-Hop/Rap in this case), and elements from his Congolese heritage. 

Next, I chose to include “Sister Bethina,” a very popular South African Kwaito song, because – once again – the percussive elements from “Elle veut pas me laisser” seemed to flow well into this one. The actual style of drumming, though, is very different between the two songs. Kwaito itself emerged in Soweto in the 1990s, as a primarily House-genre with influences from Rap and Hip-Hop, and a very distinctive singing/speaking style (A History of Kwaito Music). The genre has its roots in another South African genre, the 1920s Marabi, which itself was a hybrid between South African singing and American Ragtime and Blues. “Sister Bethina,” with its varying but somehow constant percussive elements (clapping noises, fuller drumming), and vocals (Mgarimbe switches between singing and speaking, but the timbre of his voice is unchanged somehow), is a perfect representation of Kwaito – a hybrid genre – itself.

The fifth song on the playlist, “Zol,” is another South African House song. It is unique from the other songs on the playlist in that it is not hybrid in sound, but there is a dichotomy that exists between the sound and its messaging. I chose to include it after “Sister Bethina” to showcase the differences between the two, and thus the House “sounds” that exist in South Africa, where EDM, House, and Techno/Trance are very popular genres. The song came out during the COVID pandemic, following a tobacco ban passed by the government that lasted around 6 months – cigarettes, cigars, tobacco for shisha, loose tobacco, etc. were not for sale in an effort to prevent people from socializing or sharing cigarettes/joints (marijuana is legal recreationally and medically) (Gerber, 2020). “Zol” is an older slang term for a joint/blunt, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a minister with the South African government, gave a speech where she said: “when people zol, they put the saliva on the paper” as justification for the tobacco ban. South Africans were outraged by the tobacco ban (with an accompanying alcohol ban), and so when Max Hurrell sampled Dlamini-Zuma’s speech and made a House beat out of it, it went viral immediately. The contrast I see here is between the very modern House sound, with a very heavy and repetitive bass, and the older slang of Dlamini-Zuma, which is the only vocalization in the song. 

Next, I listed “Исповедь (Ispoved),”,a Russian House/Hip-Hop song by FEDUK, with a feature by rapper mishlawi – more House music. I chose to include this song as an example of the kind of hybridity that exists between modern genres and transnationally. In this song, Russian House artist FEDUK covers the production and the vocals, while American/English artist mishlawi raps the verses. The beat itself is slightly different from most other FEDUK songs, which generally are more ‘classically’ house – this one is reminiscent of a more R&B style production, which seems to fit better with mishlawi’s style of vocalization. It seems to me to be a representation of a very seamless combination of musical genres, as well as differing languages. 

To continue the theme of Rap, the seventh song on this playlist is Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks.” West’s style of rapping is very different from mishlawi’s, and the rhythm is a lot more consistent than in “Исповедь (Ispoved),” but I liked how it got a little more intense after the fairly mellow sixth song. In the song, Kanye uses a lot of classic Rap elements – ad-libs, a strong beat, and obviously strong lyricism. A consistent part of the beat, though, is a sample of “Walk With Me” (1997) by the ARC choir, a Christian Gospel choir. Although Gospel is by no means no longer popular, I associate it more with an older ‘sound’ – perhaps the use of acoustic instruments and lots of voices plays a part – which is where I identify the hybridity in this piece.   

Eighth on the list is “Take Me for a Ride in your Mustang Rita,” a newer (2017) Blues song. This song in general seems very ‘authentic’ to the classic Blues sound, but something about Henkel’s vocalization feels more modern than older Blues – it just does not sound like the vocalizations of the 50s-60s. The hybridity to me comes in, with his clear foundation in older Blues. The guitar in particular is very reminiscent of the way Robert Johnson plays – steel string and short, quick strumming. It sounds like he’s cutting a lot of the chords off, too – some are muted at the end.

Next is “Lagarija Lagara,” a Yugoslavian Turbo-Folk song. Turbo-Folk is a hybrid genre itself; the combination of Yugoslavian folk music and western elements like synths and other features of 80s-Pop. Lepa Brena is considered one of the most influential Turbo-Folk artists in history (Remembering Yugoslavia 2021). This song itself contains many Balkan folk elements – her vocalization, the string instruments, and the style of percussion are very traditional Balkan sounds. The western elements though, are a faster pace and the liberal usage of synths.

Finally, I end on a song from my own country – “Luj qyqek,” a very popular modern Albanian folk song from Kosovo. Kosovar Albanians (perhaps more so than Albanians from Albania) are extremely intent on preserving their Albanian heritage and culture, owed to the ethnically charged troubles/wars that they experienced all the way into the 1990s. Their music – even the newer stuff – is more ‘traditionally’ Albanian. This song in particular uses either the ‘fyell brezi’ (an Albanian woodwind instrument) or ‘kaval’ (a woodwind instrument common in most of the Balkans and Turkey). I am fairly certain the percussion and other instrumentation is electronic, but the percussion in particular sounds like a “duallja” (an Albanian folk instrument drum). The vocals used sound almost like yodeling – a sonic signifier of Balkan folk music. Despite all the efforts of maintaining the traditional Albanian sound, the Osmani siblings have still embraced the western electronically-produced percussion, although they have retained the sound of a duallja!

Although “hybridity” is a massively wide topic to discuss, there are numerous ways in which songs can intersect different cultures, sounds, or time periods. This playlist is meant to provide insight into the different ways in which artists have used older songs or genres as foundations or accents to their more modern-sounding music. Ultimately, despite there being more complexities to it, I think the practice is a good one – it allows for musicians to preserve certain ‘worldly’ sounds, while also participating in or even pioneering more modern genres.

Krista Martin is a second-year undergraduate at the University of Chicago, majoring in Business Economics and Russian and Eastern European Studies. She has played the violin, guitar, and piano, though hasn’t played any of them in a few years.

Works Cited

Cantor, Judy. “The Congo, by Way of Cuba.” Miami New Times, Miami New Times, 19 May 

2021, https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/the-congo-by-way-of-cuba-6359979.

Gerber, Jan. “Dlamini-Zuma Gets Flak for Focusing on ‘Zol and Alcohol’ While Municipalities Are Looted.” News24, news24, 22 July 2020, https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/dlamini-zuma-gets-flak-for-focusing-on-zol-and-alcohol-while-municipalities-are-looted-20200722.  

“A History of Kwaito Music.” South African History Online, 2021, https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-kwaito-music. 

Remembering Yugoslavia. “Lepa Brena: A Yugoslav Woman.” Remembering Yugoslavia, 25 Mar. 2021, https://rememberingyugoslavia.com/lepa-brena-yugoslav/. 

Zheng, Su. Claiming Diaspora: Music, Transnationalism, and Cultural Politics in Asian/Chinese America. Oxford University Press, 2011.