Coupé Decalé
Have you ever heard of Coupé Decalé? An interesting type of dance I learned about today when talking with a mate. It's a pop music which started in Paris, but with Cote d'Ivoire origins. If I understood everything correctly coupé decalé means to cheat a person & then run away. The person being "cheated" refers to someone from Europe, when this first became popular, the songs were congratulating people who had 'make it' outside of Cote d'Ivorie.When I Wiki'd it I found two quotes which I thought were interesting:
Vladimir Cagnolari suggests that the music is a way Ivorians are coping with their unstable political situation. "For a few hours, the rooms is transformed into an ephemeral temple of festival/party, using carefree-ness and amusement to counter the socio-political problems of a country still waiting for peace. ... In a musical landscape dominated by patriotic and military music, coupé-décalé arrives like a breath of fresh air to forget the difficult context in which Ivorians are living."
Kohlhagen Dominik, "Over the past three years, Coupé-Décalé has become one of the most thriving forms of popular music in francophone Africa. Produced by people who claim to have achieved "success" abroad, Coupé-Décalé represents "elsewhere" as a site from which one can achieve a certain status in consumer society so as to return home to be celebrated. This music expresses generational transformations that affect lifestyles in Africa as well as ways of projecting oneself in the world."
posted by Sara @ 12:19 pm
2 Comments:
i didn't know the name of it until now, but i've seen/heard it before at a local west africa restaurant that constantly plays these music videos. the videos are wild!
i figured it was sort of the west african version of hip hop. based on your description of coupe decale i see why i made that connection, with the shared emphasis on making it big and showing the folks in your old neighborhood the material success you've garnered.
jen:
i'm hoping my mate is actually in the documentary cause i'm sure my description isn't even that great, but it's intereting none the less!
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