Music in the Ugandan context, a long time ago, used to be mainly educative in the sense that by the time a song finished playing, one would have picked out something to learn about; society, culture, norms and values and everything. There was a lot of dancing as well, just like as it is with every other African tribe. We are so expressive in dance. The beats, played over a variety of instruments are persuasive, expressive and full of life.
As times evolved and society got exposed to more and more music from other countries, I would say it had to shift from just educating to as well as entertaining. Talk about competition in a monetary society.
As globalization spread alongside technology, so did the music borders. We got exposed to new sounds and this greatly shifted music from mainly educating to entertainment and thus the Ugandan scene got dominated by South African and Congolese sounds because it also brought to the scene more dance styles and vibe. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Kanda Bongo Man, Pepe Kale etc. These vibrations also came with new dances; dombolo, kwaito, kwasa kwasa, soukous and the Ugandan club life burst up in new energy. This was the era we also had the growth of band music, popular night clubs and largely the traditional/ folklore music of storytelling turned into kadongo kamu (one beat) with maestros like Paulo Kafero, Herman Basudde and Fred Ssebata (all Rip).
In the 90s, Jamaican music entered the chat and many youths were influenced by the likes of Chaka Demas and Pliers, Super Cat, Prossy Patra, Buju Banton. This brought a new crop of (rough voiced and dreadlocked) artists including those we call the big 3 (Bobi Wine, Jose Chameleon and Bebe Cool) Peter Miles and Mensahn, Emperor Orlando, Rasta Rob, with Chameleon vowing to kick Congolese and South African music out of Uganda. He brought to the scene Swahili lyrics with African beats and a mix of dancehall and many glorify him for being successful at it. This era also brought to Uganda the formation of music gangs (Firebase Crew of Bobi Wine, Leone Island of Jose Chameleon and Gagamel of Bebe Cool).
The late 90s also fueled the consumption of American music and dances (hip hop and RnB), leading to the formation of groups like The Obsessions, Clear Kut and others, artists like Micheal Ross, Sylvester and Abrams, as well as West African music with 2 Face Idibia, Wiz Kid, Banky W, Davido and the most successful duo of P Square running the show. We had break dance take over the scene and traditional music was largely pushed to formal and traditional events.
The West African movement has literary led to the biggest influence of African music (the world over) as (mainly) Nigerian music has led a massive revolution that we are still under up to date. They have gone ahead to make collaborations with arguably every biggest artist on the planet, won every major music award there is and influenced the dance culture as well with vibrant moves like shaku shaku, leg work, butterfly etc. that has also been copied by international artists like Beyonce and Chris brown.
Their biggest rival right now is South Africa, once again, with the amapiano movement and its iconic dance moves like the gwara gwara, pouncing cat, vosho, dakiwe among others.
The music landscape is still evolving (I think) but largely in the dance and beats culture as they are largely the biggest drivers of the music revolution because Africans love to dance.
Random Thoughts of Shadray 