Before the entirety of the Top 40 list is released, smaller "vertical" segments are released as follows: Top 5, Top 10, Top 20 and Top 25. This is intended to facilitate subsequent online search by individuals who may be interested only in specific segments.
For the same reason, smaller "horizontal" pillars are also released. Thus, for example, there is (a) an overall Top 40 list for "all" Africa, (b) a Top 40 lists for all artistes within East Africa, (c) a Top 40 list for female artistes drawn from across Africa, (d) a Top 40 list for female artistes within East Africa, (e) a Top 40 list for all-Africa's happiest songs, and (f) a Top 40 list for the happiest songs within East Africa. As already explained, all these Top 40 lists are further segmented into Top 5, Top 10, Top 20 and Top 25.
There is just so much really good lay music out of Africa these days that you sense you are not doing anyone justice by listing less rather than more. However, there is a limit to any leeway. The listing task requires more and more meticulous attention because of growing complexity arising from a discernible and laudable burst of creativity up and down sub-Sahara, and with easier and faster online access to artists' creations, as well as 'the market'. Every region seems to be catching up with the 'pioneers' and demanding attention by sheer activity and flashes of brilliance. No one can sit on their laurels.
The focus of this list is the song, not the singer; with the added requirement that only songs in video form qualify. [This remains so with regard to related or 'branched' lists where attention turns firmly to female singers]. In addition, the song must broadly fit the standard definition of popular (or pop) music; that is, music in any of these distinct genres, or any combination of them: AfroPop, Benga, Blues, Bongo Flava, Genge, Hip Hop, Kizomba, Kwaito, RnB, Rap, Reggae, Rock, Soukous and Soul. We are not dealing here with gospel, classical or traditional music as usually understood; although borderline cases or creative partial 'fusions' with them will always be considered.
In principle, links will be provided to the author's commentary on each of the Top 10 Songs, as soon as they are available. However, given that final decisions concerning the complete set of Top 40 Songs and their relative rankings are made from very late in December to much of January, it is difficult to undertake to issue detailed commentary on any 'priority' list or number of songs simultaneously with the release of the series of rankings that constitute #TheYamboSelection, 2017.This is particularly so because the rankings must be released very early in 2018. Links to any subsequent reviews of listed songs will be published on the blog or elsewhere as soon as possible. Certainly, links to any sketch-reviews written in the normal course of tracking the goings-on of Pop 2017 are pre-included in the list below -- where the songs so reviewed have in fact "made the cut".
Finally, as we start browsing and clicking, let's remember that Top 5, 10, 20, 25 and 40 are hallowed space. Only the best pop songs (whatever the sub-category) should populate them, in proper order, regardless of country or sex or language or ethnic identity or religion, or race; and here they do. In 'best songs' we include only those in which the singers have made patently creative use of the elements that characterize all music (of which pop is an integral part) in order to give them (the songs) superior appeal to the average or accomplished ear. These elements are: Tone, melody, harmony, beat, rhythm, pitch, audibility, tempo, and the visual impact. You may also distill these elements into VSO -- that is Voice, Sound (of the instrumental kind) and Optics -- or, more traditionally and broadly, audio-visual. Cinematography and videography are integral to optics, as properly understood.
Pop music is 'popular' in the sense that it resonates with large publics, in their present (or day-to-day, or contemporary) circumstances. If it is not pop, it is traditional or Gospel or 'classical' in orientation, and thus locked in, and into, the past -- or certain arguably rigid spiritual canons. Over time, it is important to realize, day-to-day begins inexorably to provide a break with what we may call the past. This is distinctly the case in multicultural environments, or the 'melting pots' of deep-urban localities.
As already pointed out, #TheYamboSelection rates only music videos. The point here is that an artist who does not release the video version of a song is simply not ready for big time with that song. Fans nowadays want to see what's going on with the artiste and his or her 'band' while the song is sung. Today's pop scene, it seems obvious, is inescapably audio-visual. Sound quality matters, exceedingly; and so does the quality of the visual dimension. This dimension encompasses both what moves on the set, as broadly understood, and what doesn't -- and how the two, appropriately 'made up' are captured or recorded. And let's not forget that the production of a video is a cooperative venture between the artiste(s) and the video director/producer. The latter do deserve credit too when things go really right.
Success demands that the audio-visual challenge be simultaneously attacked from two perspectives: (a) From the performance perspective, the artiste's obligation, working with the band of choice, is to produce the vocals, the lyrics, the sounds and the dance or 'stage' routines (the 'body text') that together signify, accentuate or enhance his or her persona in the eyes and ears of the fans; and, (b) From the recording perspective, both the sounds and the visuals (in all their aesthetic permutations and combinations) are technically the responsibility of the cinematographer and/or the video director/producer.
The artiste must therefore choose very carefully, and it costs a tidy sum to commit the people who can produce a video of high technical and artistic quality. Indeed, as directors such as Clarence Peters, Justin Campos, MattMax, C.A.R.D.O.S.O and Moe Musa know -- and as those who know their work do too -- the task of directing/producing a winning music video is not merely a technical challenge but a demanding creative-artistic one as well. This does of course rope in the actors and the artistes, as everything visual converges on the set. Certainly, the dancing and other forms of acting must be well choreographed for the camera and synchronized with the song, even if the sound of a particular single or track comes to the set pre-recorded.
The naming of more than one hit inevitably prompts the question as to which hit comes first, and which next or last. Sometimes, all too often perhaps, there are ties which must be broken and songs which must thus, regrettably, be excluded. The more valued the list, the greater the regret all around.
In selecting and ranking Africa's Top hits -- limited to Sub-Sahara as already indicated -- the following six criteria (each on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the highest score) have served as a guide (and thus an otherwise altogether qualitative proposition is tempered with a known procedure):
1. The creative appeal and musicality of the voice asset.
2. The choice and mastery of the musical instruments in play.
3. The poetic form and content of the lyrics.
4. The artistic and aesthetic depth of the video component.
5. The synchronic or choreographic quality of the audio-visual product, in terms of: harmony, tone, melody, rhythm, beat and color (dis)play.
6. Based on the foregoing, how the entire single/track, from beginning to end, impresses the rater -- or makes him/her feel about the encounter with the track in question. This criterion also serves as a qualitative tie-breaker; that is, a virtual 'casting vote' whenever any other criteria yield a quantitative tie between songs.
In addition to the six criteria, the maximum number of listed titles under which an artist may be indicated as the lead singer in a given year is firmly restricted to three; but there is no limit to the number of times an artist may feature or make cameo appearances in listed songs or videos.
Note: This introduction represents a substantial update of the version published in 2016.
In principle, links will be provided to the author's commentary on each of the Top 10 Songs, as soon as they are available. However, given that final decisions concerning the complete set of Top 40 Songs and their relative rankings are made from very late in December to much of January, it is difficult to undertake to issue detailed commentary on any 'priority' list or number of songs simultaneously with the release of the series of rankings that constitute #TheYamboSelection, 2017.This is particularly so because the rankings must be released very early in 2018. Links to any subsequent reviews of listed songs will be published on the blog or elsewhere as soon as possible. Certainly, links to any sketch-reviews written in the normal course of tracking the goings-on of Pop 2017 are pre-included in the list below -- where the songs so reviewed have in fact "made the cut".
Finally, as we start browsing and clicking, let's remember that Top 5, 10, 20, 25 and 40 are hallowed space. Only the best pop songs (whatever the sub-category) should populate them, in proper order, regardless of country or sex or language or ethnic identity or religion, or race; and here they do. In 'best songs' we include only those in which the singers have made patently creative use of the elements that characterize all music (of which pop is an integral part) in order to give them (the songs) superior appeal to the average or accomplished ear. These elements are: Tone, melody, harmony, beat, rhythm, pitch, audibility, tempo, and the visual impact. You may also distill these elements into VSO -- that is Voice, Sound (of the instrumental kind) and Optics -- or, more traditionally and broadly, audio-visual. Cinematography and videography are integral to optics, as properly understood.
Pop music is 'popular' in the sense that it resonates with large publics, in their present (or day-to-day, or contemporary) circumstances. If it is not pop, it is traditional or Gospel or 'classical' in orientation, and thus locked in, and into, the past -- or certain arguably rigid spiritual canons. Over time, it is important to realize, day-to-day begins inexorably to provide a break with what we may call the past. This is distinctly the case in multicultural environments, or the 'melting pots' of deep-urban localities.
As already pointed out, #TheYamboSelection rates only music videos. The point here is that an artist who does not release the video version of a song is simply not ready for big time with that song. Fans nowadays want to see what's going on with the artiste and his or her 'band' while the song is sung. Today's pop scene, it seems obvious, is inescapably audio-visual. Sound quality matters, exceedingly; and so does the quality of the visual dimension. This dimension encompasses both what moves on the set, as broadly understood, and what doesn't -- and how the two, appropriately 'made up' are captured or recorded. And let's not forget that the production of a video is a cooperative venture between the artiste(s) and the video director/producer. The latter do deserve credit too when things go really right.
Success demands that the audio-visual challenge be simultaneously attacked from two perspectives: (a) From the performance perspective, the artiste's obligation, working with the band of choice, is to produce the vocals, the lyrics, the sounds and the dance or 'stage' routines (the 'body text') that together signify, accentuate or enhance his or her persona in the eyes and ears of the fans; and, (b) From the recording perspective, both the sounds and the visuals (in all their aesthetic permutations and combinations) are technically the responsibility of the cinematographer and/or the video director/producer.
The artiste must therefore choose very carefully, and it costs a tidy sum to commit the people who can produce a video of high technical and artistic quality. Indeed, as directors such as Clarence Peters, Justin Campos, MattMax, C.A.R.D.O.S.O and Moe Musa know -- and as those who know their work do too -- the task of directing/producing a winning music video is not merely a technical challenge but a demanding creative-artistic one as well. This does of course rope in the actors and the artistes, as everything visual converges on the set. Certainly, the dancing and other forms of acting must be well choreographed for the camera and synchronized with the song, even if the sound of a particular single or track comes to the set pre-recorded.
The naming of more than one hit inevitably prompts the question as to which hit comes first, and which next or last. Sometimes, all too often perhaps, there are ties which must be broken and songs which must thus, regrettably, be excluded. The more valued the list, the greater the regret all around.
In selecting and ranking Africa's Top hits -- limited to Sub-Sahara as already indicated -- the following six criteria (each on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the highest score) have served as a guide (and thus an otherwise altogether qualitative proposition is tempered with a known procedure):
1. The creative appeal and musicality of the voice asset.
2. The choice and mastery of the musical instruments in play.
3. The poetic form and content of the lyrics.
4. The artistic and aesthetic depth of the video component.
5. The synchronic or choreographic quality of the audio-visual product, in terms of: harmony, tone, melody, rhythm, beat and color (dis)play.
6. Based on the foregoing, how the entire single/track, from beginning to end, impresses the rater -- or makes him/her feel about the encounter with the track in question. This criterion also serves as a qualitative tie-breaker; that is, a virtual 'casting vote' whenever any other criteria yield a quantitative tie between songs.
In addition to the six criteria, the maximum number of listed titles under which an artist may be indicated as the lead singer in a given year is firmly restricted to three; but there is no limit to the number of times an artist may feature or make cameo appearances in listed songs or videos.
Note: This introduction represents a substantial update of the version published in 2016.
1. Gillet, Charles, "African Popular Music". Encyclopedia Brittannica
2. Trace TV, Trace TV Video Selection Criteria
3. Vanguard Nigeria (December 13, 2017) "MTV Base unveils Panel to Select Hottest Nigerian Song of 2017"
