Deconstructing notions of identity through the exploration of popular Afrikaans music in Pretoria South Africa

Abstract

While many have written on Afrikaans protest music during various periods, this dissertation is an attempt to add to the ongoing debate by exploring an area of Afrikaans music that has received scant attention. Pop Afrikaans music is varied, and while it seemingly offers little in terms of political or social content, I argue in this dissertation for the validity and importance of contextualisation, even when lyrical content might appear vapid at first glance. This becomes more pertinent when considering that pop Afrikaans music enjoys a far wider audience than many related musical movements, such as Voëlvry. Further, juxtaposing the social consumption of pop Afrikaans music in Presley's against similar phenomena at Aandklas allows for a deeply revealing picture of the different paths that self-ascribed Afrikaners are taking in the process of creating, changing, and reifying their own identity. Music has always played a complex role in this process, revealing a reciprocal process between performer and consumer to provide content from which people may draw inspiration and validation, in order to ultimately find new narratives assisting in navigating the lived experience of imagined communities.