Could you define zouglou for music fans who may not be aware of the genre right now?
Zouglou is a form of protest music. It was originally invented by what I’d call non-musicians, by students performing on university campuses in the early ‘90s. The dance steps and the body movements used in zouglou express a sort of weariness and lassitude in the face of social problems. Zouglou gradually broke out of the student milieu and became a national urban music style. Its strength lies in the fact that it doesn’t belong to any specific region and it can be sung in a variety of different languages like Bambara and Dioula. At the basis of zouglou you’ll find “woyo”, a Malinké word meaning “noise”, “pounding drums”, an “easy atmosphere”. The first zouglou song played on modern instruments was recorded in 1991. Since then, zouglou has spawned a lot of derivative styles like mapouka and coupé-décalé which are both musical styles based on dance and pure entertainment. There’s no protest side to them. Magic System have become worldwide symbols of zouglou. Do you ever get the impressi
