mbalax
Sign in to saveMbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. The musical style is rooted in instrumental and vocal styles accompanied by polyrhythmic sabar drumming of the Wolof, a social identity that includes both the original Wolof people of the Greater Senegambia region and the urban panethnic identity that arose during colonialism.
Key facts
- Music genre.name
- Mbalax, Senegalese urban dance music
- Music genre.cultural_origins
- Early 1970s Senegal
- Music genre.fusiongenres
- Afro mbalax, mabalax pur et dur, moderne mbalax
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Article
6 sectionsContents
- History and influence
- Mbalax dance
- Music and instrumentation
- Artists
- References
- External links
Mbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. The musical style is rooted in instrumental and vocal styles accompanied by polyrhythmic sabar drumming of the Wolof, a social identity that includes both the original Wolof people of the Greater Senegambia region and the urban panethnic identity that arose during colonialism.
In the 1970s, mbalax arose as Senegalese fused indigenous music styles with urban dance music from the African diaspora, the West, and the continent. These foreign sounds included U.S. soul, jazz, and salsa. Afro Cuban musics from the diaspora, Congolese rumba, and rock were also fused with the rhythms of sabar that were now played on the electric bass, guitar and keyboards.