Tata Nkiadi, spot on!! Even most of the producers have now given up, they would rather work young upcoming musicians doing dance music which is being called afropop because it's faster and danceable. 

Jdog, you're contradicting yourself. First you say congolese music is about singing then later you say people get tired of people like Fally singing something they don't understand so in effect you're agreeing that this new trend of rhumba has messed up congolese music.

One thing you must understand is that what most young musicians are doing is just ballads, it's actually tcha tcho introduced by Koffi Olomide where the song has one or two slow melodies/ rhythms and is slow with the lyrics being about love only with one singer singing from start to finish, that is not the way rhumba was made back in the days.
Listen to TPOK Jazz, Fiesta etc, you'll hear proper rhumba with excellent vocal arrangements by a variety of singers on and complex musical arrangement and with diverse topics to sing about not just mere love like I want you back, am dying and all that crap. A song should have a strong story and that's what old songs had and most ended with at least semi sebene, not slow and not too fast even without animation.

Sly I never said people get tired of Fally's rhumbas I said that when he goes to different countries fans sing along with him even though they don't know a word of Lingala.....so that shows that people are not tired of Congolese rhumbas and Sly you can't dance all the time there needs to be a time where you just relax and listen to someone sing and if people just want to dance, they can dance to rhumba we dance to Rnb over here in America.

jdog the difference between the rumbas of the past  and now is that there was  guitar in most of them,there was a certain tempo you can dance too, not synthé/computer throughout
for example one of the bigggest rumba hits mario,or koffi's ngobila and also since the current album setup was not there yet they were releasing maximum three or four songs a year
i for example remember a song like muzi of ntesa,most of my foreign friends used to love singing it even though they slaughtered words lol but they were really having fun
whereas today singing means synthé/computer rumba 99 per cent of the time
of course music is not just dance,but  dance is universal language,yes fans sings fally's songs(and koffi has the same treatment) but i highly doubt foreign guys can sit there for 2 hours of rumba non stop,no way unless its a VIP,they would need droit chemin/loi type of songs as well
In what  was mentioned as the golden era of congolese music, the guys were not lacking rumbas to release,but they were picking the 2 or 3 best ones then the rest were sebene songs,and result most of those "rare" rumbas were big hits
instead of  doing  so called "world" albums with "so called" rnb,coupe decale what they can do then, is release a rumba album destined mainly to DRC and one with the old formula for abroad,that's the secret
proof is the music seen today as stronger are dances,azonto and other concepts of that type,gweta from togo, the different dances of coupe déecale...
may make an analogy between congolese music and brazilian football,both were untouchable when they did their thing their way(danceable rumba/sebene and samba football aka joga bonito) the day they dumped their basics to follow others(for example the guys who think to compete with coupe decale you have to try to do coupe decale) and look what happened...

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!

Kakamega.....were on earth is this location?......I also think I need to listen to Karmapa, I have ignored him too much.

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.

Sly, you have brought out a good point and now is the time we talk to Kofi, Gola and to some extent Fally......these love talking to the microphone alone with very little sebene. Koffi is the major culprit though.

Sly I never said people get tired of Fally's rhumbas I said that when he goes to different countries fans sing along with him even though they don't know a word of Lingala.....so that shows that people are not tired of Congolese rhumbas and Sly you can't dance all the time there needs to be a time where you just relax and listen to someone sing and if people just want to dance, they can dance to rhumba we dance to Rnb over here in America.

Jdog, Congolese Music was very popular because of sebene and we danced all the way in pubs here in Zambia. Ask Sly, Cheztemba has suffered a huge setback because of lack of sebene music and the owner Kayembe even closed the Lusaka Cheztemba which housed smaller pubs for other genres just to cater for others. Another Cheztemba has been opened and still has inside pubs playing other music.....I dont think it will last again. So sebene should be brought back if Congolese Music has to come back strong.

I do not know which Ministry deals with culture and music in Congo, but maybe to people like Archos, kindly take this up and write a petition or something to the Ministry....I am sure they will round up big artists and talk to them. This is why here in Zambia, popular songs in pubs are coming from Felix Wazekwa as number one, Werrason, Fally, JB, Gola in that order. Wazekwa's sebenes beat them in bars because he never leaves a stone unturned when he hits a sebene. Though they sound cut and paste, only you who knows how a sebene is played will notice, not the unsuspecting drunk people.

I think the current generation of Congolese Music, the likes of Ferre and Fally should be more creative like their brothers.  Wenge Musica led by Mpiana, Werra and took the Congolese Music to the  current level, and there is nothing else they can do, with the imminent retirement of Koffi Olomide and the apparent lack of interest from Mpiana its high time for Fally and Co to take over and lead us to the next level

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The best slow song ever from far right(Republicans, wanafujo,Werrason)

Give me this kind of music anytime, i will spend my money on Cds.  Balance tune

So you guys like upbeat rhumbas it seems and what's wrong with the piano in rhumbas? The piano is still an instrument used widely in every genre of music.

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. 

Mabanga has been out way before the combattant situation.

So you guys like upbeat rhumbas it seems and what's wrong with the piano in rhumbas? The piano is still an instrument used widely in every genre of music.

Where is Mpondolo to answer this?

we are the start of a new era. Many ppl who lived thru the 60s - 80s would laugh at this thread and say the golden era ended over 20 years ago. Its all perception the young ppl who love fally and ferre and present day wmm arent complaining. With this new crop of young artists emerging. The reality is as things change it is rare that things go back to how it was. You either embrace the changes or go back and listen to what used to be. American music is in way worse shape than congolese music and I still am able to find music to enjoy. The same with congolese music.

Shamala you raised a great question.

We are seeing the end of golden era of Congolese Music. It has been gone for some time. I would say that East African music was great during the 1970s and 1980s. Congolese Music was golden from 1980s to mid 2000s.

Congolese music started to become very known in 1980s when Franco and Tabu Ley went to my country USA. That is where you started to see people enjoy Congolese music. Already Europe had some awareness of Congolese music. I would say that Rumba music was great in 1980s with Franco, Bokelo, and Tabu Ley. We call that Rumba Odemba. But then Congolese music became more and more sebene music. Soukous music comes as result of Kanda Bongo Man, Nyboma, Pepe Kalle, Zaiko Langa Langa, and Papa Wemba. 1980s was a great time because you had the Odemba age vs the soukous age. But when the 1990s came, we had the birth of CLAN WENGE. We had Wenge El Paris and Wenge Musica BCBG 4x4. These groups became the new youth while Papa Wemba, Pepe Kalle and others became the old soukous age. Zaiko Langa Langa and Wenge Musica were the groups on top with Zaiko representing the older group with Wenge being the younger version of them. It was about music.

Early and mid 2000s were excellent as well because you had older artists coming back like Tabu Ley's final album Tempelo. You also had return of Bibi Dens, and others. Congolese music was starting to get better. But in 2007, that all changed in my opinion. All the sudden with the controversial election of Joseph Kabila, Congolese music took a major dive. All the sudden Congolese politicians want to get recognition so they ask the artists to help out. That is when the mabanga thing got out of control. Also the white folks had enough of African music as a whole. So this is leading to the end of African music. That is the unfortunate reality but it is the truth.

The only music doing well is West African music because it is English. DUH. East African, Southern and Congolese music have been declining. Also West African Music has done a good job doing some Afro-pop music as DJ Sly and Tata Nkiadi pointed out already. That is the truth. So Shamala, we can only look forward to West African Music.

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!

Kakamega.....were on earth is this location?......I also think I need to listen to Karmapa, I have ignored him too much.

EMO BCBG Kakamega is a county in Western Kenya. A place where in every  house in the larger western region you will find a CD,LP, Cassette,DVDs and VCR  of any Congolese Musician dating as back as 1980s, The Kakamega Forest is a fraction of the larger Congo Forest so the monkeys in Kakamega forest  have ancestors from congo forest.  Kakamega is home for peace( mulembe)  in Kenya, a place where strong men  sir healthy and bright kids in the entire nation, a place where  women from this community are good  cooks, good in bed and deliver the healthiest kids in the entire Country. Women with sexy asses come from Kakamega. The only place in the World where it is estimated that there is plenty of Gold like that of South Africa but untapped.

Kakamega is home for  Congo Music lovers.  Huge sales of Congo music market base is in Kakamega/ western Kenya. Currently my wife is resting on my chest as we listen to Le Bantous  De la Capite -Bakolo Mboka, track number 12 Masuwa is gracing our peace and calm.

Ngombeshenzi, you never cease to amaze me, when I come to Kenya I will make sure that I pay you a visit and enjoy the music together,  Kenyans and Tanzanians are like twin brothers.