Today host Mack Hagood is joined by three remarkable scholars whose work sits at the intersection of African music, technology, and culture.

Dr. Louise Meintjes is Marcello Lotti Professor at Duke University. She's a distinguished ethnomusicologist whose groundbreaking research on South African music has transformed how we understand the recording studio as a site of cultural negotiation and creative production.

Media anthropologist Dr. Reginold Royston is an Associate Professor jointly-appointed in the School of Information (formerly SLIS) and the Department of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He examines a range of African and African diasporic media and technology, from Black Atlantic audiobooks to African podcasting to viral dance videos emanating from Ghana and Chicago's footwork scene.

And Kingsley Okyere is graduate student at Penn whose work on African and Afro-diasporic musical circulation and genres is bringing fresh perspectives on the sounds shaping the continent today.

In this episode, we explore the evolution of Afrobeats and Amapiano, two genres that have captured global attention in recent years. We also discuss how technology and diaspora networks have shaped African popular music, examine questions of genre, identity, and global circulation, and consider the social and political contexts that inform music production and reception across the continent and beyond.

Chapters:

3:21 Meet the Guests: African Music Scholars

6:03 What Are Afrobeats and Amapiano?

7:56 Afrobeats vs. Afrobeat: History & Identity

11:49 Branding, World Music, and South African Context

14:29 Recording Studios as Sites of Negotiation

17:42 Digital Networks and Diaspora Influence

23:23 Listening Practices: Streaming, Social Media, and Algorithms

29:00 Dance, Timelines, and Global Rhythms

33:13 Economic Realities and Global Music Industry

Click here to read the full transcript.

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