The existence of these releases, more than the plethora of new Afrikaans bands, is the evidence that Afrikaans rock has arrived in the mainstream of South African rock.Īfrikaans speaking rockers have long been part of the local scene as member of bands that sang in English because that is supposed to be the language of rock and because it automatically gives any local rock band a much larger potential audience, both local and in the vast overseas market. Also there was Boland Punk, a career retrospective of Valiant Swart and a compilation of the best of Piet Botha’s Afrikaans songs, called Die Hits. Petty music industry politicking apart, the more important point to make here is that at the end of 2001 there were three different compilations of so-called Afrikaans rock in the Musicas of the country. One aspect where I would strongly disagree with Uys’s viewpoint and selection criteria is that he appears to think that “Afrikaans rock” should include all Afrikaans speaking musicians, or bands that are formed completely by Afrikaans speaking musicians even if they choose to sing in English whereas the Alternatief Op Sy Beste compilers at least stuck to artists who sing only in Afrikaans. I suppose Uys has reason to think that he is the most qualified person in this country to decide who does or does not belong amongst the alternative Afrikaans crowd but his attitude is uncomfortably reminiscent of the typical cultural fascism practised b the guardians of Afrikaner culture under the old Nationalist regime, that Uys and only Uys is allowed to make these kinds of value judgements.
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Or so it was for a very long time.Īt the end of 2001 Dirk Uys, the man behind Trippy Grape Records, the Wingerd Rock events, veteran of the alternative Afrikaner movement and music scene and long-time running buddy of Koos Kombuis and Johannes Kerkorrel from the days when Hillbrow, Johannesburg, was still a haven for penniless White bohemians, put out a press release to publicise a new album called Vloek Van Die Kitaar, a compilation designed to be a definitive history of the alternative Afrikaans rock scene, from its far off genesis in the late Seventies up to date, and in this press release he fulminated against the record company that had put out two volumes of a compilation called Alternatief op Sy Beste also designed to cover much the same round as Uys’s version although, according to Uys, the motives of the compilers of that particular album are highly suspect, not only in that they were trying to decide what “alternative” was without having his own impeccable credentials (after all he was the man who put together the seminal Voëlvry album on Shifty records in 1989), but he also as much as accused the record company of using material for which the artists were not going to receive royalties. Depending on which way you approach it, the concept of Afrikaans rock is either a tautology or an oxymoron.