Includes bibliographical references and index.

The struggle of freedom -- The experience of the outside -- Platform , or the miracle of the ordinary -- Immobility, obduracy, and experimen talism in Soweto -- Acoustic assemblages and forms of life -- Black dia monds -- Times and spaces of listening -- Epilogue.

"In mid-1990s South Africa, apartheid ended, Nelson Mandela was elec ted president, and the country's urban black youth developed kwaito&#x2 014;a form of electronic music (redolent of North American house) that came to represent the post-struggle generation. In this book, Gavin Ste ingo examines kwaito as it has developed alongside the democratization of South Africa over the past two decades. Tracking the fall of South A frican hope into the disenchantment that often characterizes the outloo k of its youth today - who face high unemployment, extreme inequality, and widespread crime—Steingo looks to kwaito as a powerful tool that paradoxically engages South Africa’s crucial social and pol itical problems by, in fact, seeming to ignore them. Politicians and cu ltural critics have long criticized kwaito for failing to provide any m eaningful contribution to a society that desperately needs direction. A s Steingo shows, however, these criticisms are built on problematic ass umptions about the political function of music. Interacting with kwaito artists and fans, he shows that youth aren’t escaping their soc ial condition through kwaito but rather using it to expand their sensor y realities and generate new possibilities. Resisting the truism that " music is always political," Steingo elucidates a music that thrives on its its radically ambiguous relationship with politics, power, and the state"--Publisher's website.