First of all let me say this thread is not meant to anger all or a section of members but my take.  I was just watching wenge musica perform my my what a performance.This prompted me to write this thread.

Kindly contribute objectively taking cognisance that members are of diverse affiliations.

am begging the question..are we witnessing the end of the golden era of congolese music. Congolese music at one time was synonymous with African music.Most genres if African music were modified copies of congolese music. Congolese music inudated most African capitals plying there trade.What happened?Nowadays it seems that it is the congolese musicians that are modifying there music to conform to other countries genre eg coupe decalle.

We are seeing albums coming out that lack the punch.Is it due to lack of talent,small pool of song writers, arrangers and producers or what.What is expected if Diego Music or David Monsoh ( Ivorian ) bags  most of the musicians.Is INA contributing to the lack of diversity ie same teachers for Patou Solo,Kimbangu,Christian Bombole etc.Has the role of Primus/ Skol also contributed by commercializing Congolese Music.

There were song that when played one would immediately recognize them. Who does not remember the drums at the beginning of the song Ndombolo? This days none of the songs are as impressive.Any day you play Mamou or Mario their effects are still felt.

I was just thinking to myself ..if you look at older atalakus the tend to outperforme the newer oner in terms of creativity,stage prescence and staying power .If Genta was to leave today where would you get his replacement? Wmm is struggling just to replace Brigade (my opinion). What happened when a guy would be picked from the streets and impress ?

I am generally disappointed with the current crop of artists. Wenge clan currently depends on their history .I will buy BCBG dvd due to loyalty more than good music.(true)...

What went wrong and what needs to be done to remedy this trend.

GOLDEN ERA was in 1999-2003 when it was officially the world war

The problem lies on greed. Every artist wants to go his/her way and the result is less strong bands that depends on efforts from all singers. Can you imagine if all these guys can cluster up and form bands?.......like bill clinton, bouro mpela, montana kamenga, celeo, baby ndombe, serge mabalia, afande, well just to mention. The combattant issue even makes it worse.

Also lack of diversity within the artistic quality monotonous half-hearted rumba's which has dragged Congolese music down to the pit in African music when sebene's and animation calls where banging in the late 90's and early 00's Congolese music was influential that it influenced "Coupe Decale"

I think it's good that African countries are stepping their game so that Congo can realize  that they need to come back stronger l, I'm not worried because the African star Werrason will release Dessert Ingeta which will be fire and Fally is taking Congolese music across borders every day then there's Ferre who's doing his thing and Deplick and Heritier will come up and Koffi Olomide the winner if four Koras has his huge fan base.

I think it's good that African countries are stepping their game so that Congo can realize  that they need to come back stronger l, I'm not worried because the African star Werrason will release Dessert Ingeta which will be fire and Fally is taking Congolese music across borders every day then there's Ferre who's doing his thing and Deplick and Heritier will come up and Koffi Olomide the winner if four Koras has his huge fan base.

nowadays they package the artists to appeal to certain niches..Here in Kenya ladies adore Fally ask them why or which specific attribute they like ...well they stare back drawing blanks..Tester years Congolese musicians used to let music talk for them ask Remny Lingala.

I think it's good that African countries are stepping their game so that Congo can realize  that they need to come back stronger l, I'm not worried because the African star Werrason will release Dessert Ingeta which will be fire and Fally is taking Congolese music across borders every day then there's Ferre who's doing his thing and Deplick and Heritier will come up and Koffi Olomide the winner if four Koras has his huge fan base.

nowadays they package the artists to appeal to certain niches..Here in Kenya ladies adore Fally ask them why or which specific attribute they like ...well they stare back drawing blanks..Tester years Congolese musicians used to let music talk for them ask Remny Lingala.

Not all ladies Love fally, Where i come from in Kakamega...Werrason and JB are the darlins of the women, I guess you  would have used the words Young teen ladies, who love Fallys looks and fashion.My wife is now a big fan of Karmapa, My mum, and my aunties. Karmapa is the only Musician  who is holding on  to the original beautiful  culture of Congo music .

Very few people talk about him on here. Try his music guys!

It depends on who you ask but to me the Golden era was late 70s into the 80s Nairobi was hotter than Kin then...

You're right shamala,it's the end of an era and you've correctly put it, it's now congolese musicians having to adopt other styles. Congolese musicians introduced a unique style which west africans copied and made their own genres called makosa and coupe decalle and using the same sebene formula,the west africans have now created what is being called afropop music,it's still sebene with solo guitar mixed with R&B and it's more appealing internationally much that world stars are now collaborating with african musicians and even producing them. This same afropop is being played everywhere now even in clubs here in Europe and on radio.
Congolese musicians are just stubborn, they don't seem to realise that what drew attention to Zairean music was the sebene.

I don’t think Congolese music change that much; I think people now have more access to other music (genre).  For example in Tanzanians: it’s rare to hear Congolese music on radio nowadays.  The radio stations play more of Bongo Flavor and east African music (Kenya and Uganda) and lit bit of West Africa.
I think they should focus on Sebene more than Rumba.  However! I don’t think they care about outsider; they care about their own people.  Sometimes I wonder what’s going to be after Koffi and Wenge Clan gone.

Congolese musicians are just stubborn, they don't seem to realise that what drew attention to Zairean music was the sebene.

The sad realization is when the musicians started ditching the sebene for more slow songs and mabanga, the fan base with the money left with it. The fan base with the money happens to be white Europeans. These fans collected music all the way back to the days of Wendo Kolosoy, through the African Jazz, OK Jazz, Afrisa and Veve/Verckys eras, through the dominance of Zaiko and its off-shoots such as Viva La Musica, Langa Langa Stars, Choc Stars etc, to the dreaded and badly named Soukous era, to the emergence of Ndombolo through various Wenge off-shoots and Koffi/Quartier Latin.  I honestly believe the tide started turning when Werra and Maison Mere released A La Que Leu-Leu.  A great album, but the major complaint was the endless mabanga that plagued that album, add Koffi ditching the sebene and what do those fans have left? Nothing.  It's bad enough that they can't understand the music, but when they can't dance to it, they lose interest. These artists can't survive off of staying in Africa, with the rate of piracy and poverty, they have to travel to Europe. 

The whites stuck by them for decades, now they feel slighted, and I don't blame them.  Until the leaders of Zairean music figure out that they need that fan base and get back to catering to them, the music will decline further.  If they focus on adding the sebene back in and scratch the mabanga, the white fan base will put their money back into it.

I do remember in the late 90s when the likes of Pentagone,  Loi, Solola Bien, Titanic Micko and other danceable sebenes were played, the dance floor was flooded with people dancing like crazy, there was a Dj who was very good at mixing the sebenes parts of Pentagon album,  starting from Coco Madimba, Filandu and Djojo Ngonda. But now its all about Rumba which the majority of us do not understand. When you attend a ceremony here in Tanzania you will find that people still dance to Loi, solola bein, Etat Major and other old schools, the only current songs you can here are Koffi Olomide Danger De morte live, Fally Ipupa Droit  Chemin and Malewa, in some pubs they show mostly  live DVDs with Werrason dominating because of strong performance he gives and the dance styles he creates.

For all the people complaining about to much rhumbas in Congolese music nowadays I hope you guys know first and foremost that Congolese musicians are mostly singers. So they have to sing songs because they are singers and then they add sebene and make a full song with sebene which is called a generique. And just because you don't understand the rhumbas they have to change it?? What about the sebene because it also has lyrics that some people may not understand. Wait for Balle De Match,Dessert Ingeta and Fally's group albums because they will have sebene at the end of songs.

And another thing, people who don't even know a word of English listen to slow American songs which has no upbeat dances or styles in it (Rap/Rnb) but do they stop listening to it?? NO. Rhumba is another style of Congolese music like in American music we have rappers just like in DRC they have atalakus and we both have singers whether in Pop/Rnb or Country music. And when Fally goes to different countries and starts singing his rhumba songs people who don't even know Lingala  loudly start singing along with him like it was a concert in DRC. 

And as for mabanga, I get annoyed when theirs to much mabnga in one song or its a vocal just filled with mabanga and no real lyrics. But mabnga is a huge part of Congolese musicians revenue as they don't play outside Africa at this moment because of the combattant situation.