Overview of the Zimbabwean Music

The Zimbabwean music industry is rapidly growing and such should be noticed as we have to compete with the South African and Nigerian industries that have made a mark in Africa and internationally.

We also witnessed recently the launch of star FM a new radio station that is also geared to capture the hearts of the young and old Zimbabweans through music.

This week I will dwell mainly on factors I think are necessary for our Zimbabwean music to reach international level, we have artists likeMetaphysiscs,AudiusMutawarira and cam just to mention a few who have managed to play on the international scene.

Good music revolves around a proper instrumental, good rhyming lyrics and an excellent video. With the ability to combine all these elements there is no doubt that Zim music would takeover as Africa’s number one.

It would be great to see our local artists collaborating with ‘international stars’ like what the Nigerian duo P Square is doing. This would also make our artists internationally recognised because the hive of international music seems to the United States of America.

In Zimbabwe there are quite a number of genres including; Urban grooves, Kwaito, Rhythm n Blues,Hiphop,Gospel,Pop, Sungura,Traditional (mbira) music.

We also have the NAMA awards which are the major national music awards, the categories in these awards include mainly – Outstanding music video,

Outstanding Screen production,

Outstanding dance group,

Outstanding mixed media work,

Outstanding theatrical production,

Outstanding three dimensional work, and

Out standing arts reporter.

There is need for more categories and consistency in these awards, for the past years the NAMA haven’t drawn much hype like the South African Music Awards do.Therefore,these are some of the sectors in the Zimbabwean music industry which also need to be revised to help put our artists on the international map.