Masters Degrees (Music)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7270

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Claiming sounds, constructing selves : the racial and social imaginaries of South African popular music.
(2005) Robertson, Mary.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
This thesis explores some of the ways in which listening to South African popular music allows individuals to enter into imaginative engagements with others in South Africa, and in so doing, negotiate their place in the social landscape. Taking as its starting point the notion of the "musical imaginary" - the web of connotational meanings arising out of the interaction between music and society, rendering it a particularly suitable medium through which to imagine social actors - it focuses specifically on the role of music in constructions of 'race' and, to a lesser extent, of 'nation'. It examines some of the ways in which dominant discourses exert pressure on what is imagined, as well as highlighting the creativity of listeners who appropriate the musical imaginary for their own ends of identification. It attempts to depict the complexity of musical identification in postapartheid South Africa, in which individuals must negotiate multiple boundaries marking difference, including categories of 'race', ethnicity, gender and class. It also investigates perceptions of the role of music in generating new identities and modes of social interaction, and offers some speculations as to how an analysis of these perceptions may contribute to current theoretical models of change in multicultural societies.
From rock'n'roll to hard core punk : an introduction to rock music in Durban, 1963-1985.
(1995) Van der Meulen, Lindy.; Ballantine, Christopher John.; Parker, Beverly Lewis.
This thesis introduces the reader to rock music in Durban from 1963 to 1985, tracing the development of rock in Durban from rock'n'roll to hard core punk. Although the thesis is historically orientated, it also endeavours to show the relationship of rock music in Durban to three central themes, viz: the relationship of rock in Durban to the socio-political realities of apartheid in South Africa; the role of women in local rock, and the identity crisis experienced by white, English-speaking South Africans. Each of these themes is explored in a separate chapter, with Chapter Two providing the bulk of historical data on which the remaining chapters are based. Besides the important goal of documenting a forgotten and ignored rock history, one central concern pervades this work. In every chapter, the conclusions reached all point to the identity crisis experienced both by South African rock audiences and the rock musicians themselves. The constant hankering after international (and specifically British) rock music trends both by audiences and fans is symptomatic of a culture in crisis, and it is the search for the reasons for this identity crisis that dominate this work. The global/local debate and its relationship to rock in South Africa has been a useful theoretical tool in the unravelling of the identity crisis mentioned above. Chapter Four focusses on the role of women in the Durban rock scene and documents the difficulties experienced by women who were rock musicians in Durban. This is a small contribution to the increasing field of womens' studies, and I have attempted to relate the role of women in rock in Durban to other studies in this field.
Local is lekker? : a study of the perceptions of contemporary South African popular music among Durban adolescents at five culturally diverse schools in the greater Durban area.
(2005) Ralfe, Sarah Isabel.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
Is local lekker? This study looks at the perceptions the youth in Durban hold towards local music. Through a study of the Grade 11 learners at Bonela Secondary, Gelofte Skool, Hillcrest High School, Thomas More College and Sastri College this research looks at how much support is offered for local music. It considers how much local music the respondents listen to, how much they purchase and how many local concerts they attend. This study also considers the mediathat the respondents are exposed to,in order to· discover if any correlation occurs between the media that they are exposed to and their perception of local music. The impact of globalization and cultural imperialism on the consumption of local music are also considered. In addition, the study looks at whether variables such as gender, school, "race" or the home language of the respondents impact on their support for local music. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The respondents were required to respond to a questionnaire which elicited responses concerning their perceptions of local music, their support for local music and the media that they are exposed to. From the questionnaires a group of respondents of differing views, genders and home languages was selected to participate in a focus group interview. Results show that the respondents support very little in the way of local music, with regard to listening to local music, purchasing local music and supporting local concerts. They are exposed to a great deal of foreign material and do not have much exposure to local products.
Pennywhistle kwela : a musical, historical and socio-political analysis.
(1993) Allen, Lara Victoria.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
This thesis is an exploration of the history of the pennywhistle in black South African popular music, the most important style to evolve around this instrument being kwela music. An analysis of kwela is conducted from several perspectives: historical, musical, socio-cultural and political. Chapter I explores the urban South African musical styles which preceded and influenced kwela. The first of these genres was marabi, which developed in Johannesburg's slumyards in the first three decades of the this century. Marabi was followed by tsaba-tsaba in the late thirties, which in tum gave way to the swing influenced genre of "African Jazz" in the forties. Chapter II chronologically traces the use of the pennywhistle in urban black South African popular music. An examination of kwela is preceded by a discussion of the pennywhistle-and-drum "Scottish" marching bands of the thirties and forties, and the rhythm-and-blues pennywhistle style of the early fifties. Various venues and their effect on the performance of kwela are explored, as are the effects of international recognition on the style's development. Chapter III comprises an in-depth musical analysis of kwela's stylistic components. The structure of kwela music and its harmonic, melodic and rhythmic components are examined. A discussion of kwela's instrumentation includes an examination of the roles of the guitar, banjo, string bass, drum-set, pennywhistle and saxophone. Chapter IV is an exploration of the social context and cultural milieu which spawned and nurtured the development of kwela music. Chapter V examines the relationship between kwela and South African politics in the fifties. An overview of this political environment is followed by an examination of the effects of particular apartheid legislation on the development of music in general and kwela in particular. Chapter VI concludes with an exploration of the ways in which various interest groups were able to find meaning and identity in kwela music. Included here, for instance, are the ways in which kwela contributed to the formation of urban black identity, and how the style came to have meaning for various white interest groups. Finally, the meaning of kwela today is considered.
The role of rap performance in reinforcing or challenging participants' perceptions of 'race' in post-apartheid South Africa, Durban.
(2008) Chimba, Musonda Mabuza.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
This ethnographic study concerns itself with the role that local rap performance plays in either reinforcing or challenging perceptions of 'race' amongst the participants of hip-hop culture in Durban, South Africa, and what this implies for the prospects of reconciliation. Using Cohen's (1989) theory of community and Grossberg's (1996) theory of affective alliances, I explore the ways in which music may create and maintain differences and commonalities between groups of people. It is my hypothesis that genre conventions and connotations, and the discourses that circulate about rap music (for example, rap music as a form of expression particular to the 'black Atlantic' diaspora and conditioned by a racially segregated society [Rose 1994]), allow hip-hop to either reinforce or challenge participants' perceptions of 'race'. I examine how musical and lyrical utterances thrust into a semantic historical and socio-political context limit how rap performance can mean and how, as a dialogic speech genre, rap can uphold, subvert or negotiate its genre associations, including, through the use of double-voiced discourse, dominant ideas concerning 'race' and cultural identity. Acknowledging the idiom as of a form of black cultural expression (Rose 1994), interviewees mention narratives of hip-hop's historical origins, rap artists' use of Five Percenter and Black Nationalist ideologies, and poverty, as factors that either reinforce or challenge notions of 'race'. The simultaneous transgression of and/or adherence to, racialized space and spatialized 'race' (Forman 2002) by different 'races', as well as the presence or absence of multilingualism, are viewed as indicators of the level of commitment to the notion of a democratic place for all 'race' and language groups in post-apartheid South Africa. It is the aim of this thesis to add to the body of knowledge concerning the nature of our post-apartheid identities, what influences them and in what way. And in a broader context, to explore the role of music in societies in transition and the role it might play in facilitating an ability to 'imagine culture beyond the colour line' (Gilroy 2000).
South African popular gospel music in the post-apartheid era : genre, production, mediation and consumption.
(2005) Malembe, Sipho Sikhonzi.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
This dissertation studies South African popular 'Gospel' music in the context of the new order of the post-apartheid era. The four main focal points of the study are genre, production, mediation and consumption. The end of apartheid was a historic and significant socio-political phenomenon in South Africa. Its implications were not only socio-political; they also affected many other aspects of the country, including arts and culture. Music was not exempt. The genre of local 'Gospel' is premised on the Christian faith, so that by producing and mediating 'Gospel' music, the music industry is at the same time producing and mediating the 'Gospel', or Christian culture. Consequently, by consuming 'Gospel' music the audience also consumes this 'Gospel' culture. Local 'Gospel' first emerged with foreign influences brought into South Africa by the missionaries, but gradually developed into the broad and complex genre that we know today. This is, in part, a result of 'other' influences, styles and elements having been incorporated into it. Many production companies are responsible for the production of local 'Gospel' music. These can be broadly categorized into two: major companies, and indies (which are small, private production companies). These two production routes have different implications for the artists and their music. Similarly, there are many different ways in which this music is mediated, or 'channelled', to its audience. These include television, radio, print media (newspapers, magazines, posters, fliers, etc.), internet, and live performances, all of which have their own specificities that determine their effectiveness in mediating local 'Gospel'. As is the case with any music, the audience for local 'Gospel' consumes its music in different ways and for different purposes. Though the artists/musicians assign certain meanings to their musical works, the audience does not always identify precisely with those musical meanings. Different people at different places and times, with different experiences and social conditions, encounter and interpret the music in different ways. South African popular 'Gospel' music is a broad and complex genre that has developed and grown over the years. The birth of democracy has had an indelible impact on it, and on its processes of production, mediation and consumption.
Verdi's Macbeth : a consideration of the opera against the background of the Risorgimento and in relation to its Shakespearean source.
(1982) Fleming, Lois Christine.; Ballantine, Christopher John.; Bizley, William Henry.
No abstract available.
Where have all the flowers gone? : the shifting position of folk music within white South African popular music culture from 1960 to the present.
(1997) Kitchen, Syd, 1951-2011.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
No abstract available.
Writing against exile : a chronotopic reading of the autobiographies of Miriam Makeba, Joe Mogotsi, and Hugh Masekela.
(2006) Dalamba, Lindelwa.; Ballantine, Christopher John.
This dissertation analyses the autobiographies of Miriam Makeba, Joe Mogotsi and Hugh Masekela. The story of these formerly exiled musicians' lives as musicians who embodied the urbanising and eclectic black musical ethos of the 1950s onward has been integral to the music historiography on this era. The exilic trajectory of their story also has political resonance, as it parallels the shifts in structures of power characteristic of apartheid South Africa. Popular discourses that construct and narrate an incrementally conscientizing South African populist culture through this period have therefore also represented the musicians, through written and visual material, with this political resonance in mind. The musicians' autobiographies, however, articulate discourses of the nation from positions other these. These other positions are interanimated by literary, musical and socio-political discourses that already pervade the South African historical sphere. This informs the dialogic interplay of time, space and character in their texts, which I examine using the literary figure of the chronotope as a perceptual tool for their reading. Through analysis, I unpack how time becomes symbolically charged and space becomes mythologized in the autobiographies, how departure and eventual exile are narrated, and how the subsequent chronotopic rupture created by exile affects narration of home. Reading the struggle for authorship and authority evident in the texts' vacillation between biographical and autobiographical 'truth', the possible significances towards which this struggle points for a (re ) interpretation of South Africa's (hi)story of exile permeates the subject and process of this research.

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Music) by Author "Ballantine, Christopher John."