Musik I Kongo Kinshasa Musikalgrupp & Artist Lista

Congolese music is one of the most influential music forms of the African continent. Since the 1930s, Congolese musicians have had a huge impact on the African musical scene and elsewhere. Many contemporary genres of music, such as Kenyan benga and Colombian champeta, have been heavily influenced by Congolese music. In 2021, Congolese rumba joined the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.

Prior to the emergence of Congolese rumba, the country's musical scene was dominated by folkloric traditions rooted in oral transmission and communal performance. Ethnic associations in urban centers performed using traditional instruments such as the tam-tam (known as mbunda in Lingala and ngoma in many Bantu languages), patenge (a small, skin-covered frame drum), likembe or sanza (thumb piano), lokole, ngomi or lindanda (a gourd-resonated guitar), madimba or balafon, londole, kisakasaka, and others. This traditional music was characterized by rhythmic complexity, polyrhythmic percussion, the pentatonic scale, collective polyphonic singing, improvisation, vocal exclamations, handclapping, and dance.

The urbanization of Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in the 1930s and the expansion of colonial commercial enterprises introduced Congolese populations to a broad spectrum of foreign musical styles, including Cuban rumba, jazz, blues, biguine, highlife, and bolero. These influences contributed to a gradual shift away from purely folkloric traditions. Among the key transitional genres was maringa, a Kongo partner dance originating in the former Kingdom of Loango, which flourished in the bar-dancing culture of Brazzaville and Léopoldville. Early performances incorporated instruments such as the bass drum, accordion (likembe), and glass bottles used as percussion. During the 1940s and 1950s, the arrival of Cuban son recordings played a major role in maringa's transformation into "Congolese rumba", as works by groups like Sexteto Habanero, Trio Matamoros, and Los Guaracheros de Oriente were frequently marketed as "rumba".

The modern character of Congolese music was reflected in its adoption of electric instruments, innovative performance aesthetics, commercial appeal, and its emergence as a powerful expression of national identity. This transition brought about a decline in the use of traditional instruments and vernacular languages, with modern tools such as the electric guitar, saxophone, and accordion gaining prominence, and Lingala emerging as the dominant language of popular music. The new music adopted various names, including zebola, agwaya, nzango, kebo, Polka Piké, and, most notably, Congolese rumba. Despite the increasing dominance of modern sounds, certain musicians maintained ties to traditional styles. During the 1960s and 1970s, Congolese rumba gave birth to a wave of innovative popular dance styles, including soukous, a high-tempo genre characterized by intricate guitar melodies and layered polyrhythms. In the late 1990s, ndombolo, an offshoot of soukous known for its high-energy dance, also rose to continental prominence. Throughout this evolution, Congolese people have not adopted a singular term for their music. Historically referred to as muziki na biso ("our music"), the most common term today is ndule, meaning "music" in Lingala. The term rumba or rock-rumba is also used generically to refer to Congolese music, though neither is precise nor accurately descriptive.

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