Brunner/Bikutsi, 2. The Sound of Yaoundé in the 1970s

Chapter 2 gives an historical overview of guitar-based music in Yaoundé in the 1970s. As everywhere in Africa, Latin-America derived dances were popular, in Cameroon, this especially included rumba, soukous, and merengue. The chapter presents important musicians and bands and exemplary musical analyses, and discusses the role of radio dissemination, of music education in schools, of class differences, and of political pressure and support for music within the young postcolonial state.