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The constraints of colour: popular music listening and the interrogation of ‘race’ in post-apartheid South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2011

Mary Robertson
Mary Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA E-mail: mrobertson@uchicago.edu
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Abstract

In post-apartheid popular culture, there is a tension between the persistence of ‘race’ as a structural category of difference, and its transformation in the lives of young South Africans. In this paper, through the examination of case-studies, I explore how popular music may allow for the mediation of this tension. Drawing on Heidegger's notion of an ‘equipmental whole’ to conceptualise ‘race’, I discuss the specific ways in which individuals may come to an awareness of the potential fluidity of racial identities, and the role of music-listening practices in this process. I argue that reflecting on articulations between music and racial categories allowed listeners to critique understandings of ‘race’ underpinning post-apartheid political discourse. Such a critique enabled listeners either instrumentally to affirm a reconfigured understanding of a racial identity, or to reject ‘race’ as a meaningful category of difference altogether.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 455 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Discography

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