Out of curiosity!

three things as far as i know make the difference,the pace of the solos which is way faster in soukouss, the style of drumming, and the rhythm guitar which gets more individual sequences to shine  in general than in ndombolo

three things as far as i know make the difference,the pace of the solos which is way faster in soukouss, the style of drumming, and the rhythm guitar which gets more individual sequences to shine  in general than in ndombolo

Ahhhh! Yes that's a good thing to point out! Also, I believe that Ndombolo is a more evolved and "popularised" version of Soukous. With a slower rhythm.

As I observed, soukous drumming is more diverse, because they use the cymbal more often in the core rhythm. And in many songs there is just seben or very short chorus part. That was the idea that started the wave: soukous. To get rid of the chorus and vocal part from the first half.

Ndombolo is in reality just the music that Wenge Musica used playing (1990-1997) and most bands of the 3th generation who had their own music-style (Viva La Musica, Victoria Eleison, Anti Choc, Big Stars, etc.) adopting it to stay relevant in the music-genre. Its a mix of Cavacha (not the one of the 70s, but that Zaiko used to play in the 80s), the one of Victoria Eleison (I don't remember how it used to call it and it isn't mentioned anymore) with that of Choc Stars. With a little bit of folkloric rhythm from Bandundu and Kongo Central, that of Bandundu they like to call it tshabuala. You can hear it on songs like Kalayi Boeing, Ndombolo ya Solo, Augustine and Mulolo.

Congolese music does normally not have a proper name. It was the foreign press that always used to give names to our music-genre. In the early 70s, it was called Soum Djoum, because Tabu Ley. From the mid 70s to early 80s, they were calling it Cavacha, because of the famous dance Zaiko had and introduced the drum-rhythm (machini ya Kauka) created by the late Meridjo Belobi. From the mid 80s it was called Kwassa-Kwassa. Then from the early 90s it was called Soukous, but the Kinshasa-based artists refused to be refered like that, seeing Soukous-artists based in Paris (Kanda Bongo Man, Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabele, Dr Sakis, etc.) artists who were killing the genre and giving people abroad a fake image about our music. Then when the dance Ndombolo became popular first by JB Mpiana in 1997, who was hitting the charts in Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia, followed by General Defao with Sala Noki and then Koffi Olomide with Loi, our music was called Ndombolo and it didnt change until now. Around 2006, it was almost called Kisanola and the foreign press already stratin to refer our music like that, writing already article in that way. But the succes of the dance Kisanola didnt last long like Ndombolo, Kwassa-Kwassa and Cavacha, which made our music still being called Ndombolo and it coincinced with the rise of rumba.

Imagine if they started calling our music Kiwanzenza 20 years ago or Katshou-Katshou instead of Ndombolo or soukous lol.

Imagine if they started calling our music Kiwanzenza 20 years ago or Katshou-Katshou instead of Ndombolo or soukous lol.

I don't think I can to be honest hahaha

Why were those Paris-based artists like Kanda Bongo Man, Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabele, Dr Sakis, etc ruining the genre? Why do you consider their music a fake image of the genre?

Why were those Paris-based artists like Kanda Bongo Man, Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabele, Dr Sakis, etc ruining the genre? Why do you consider their music a fake image of the genre?

Probably because these guys were thought to have dumbed down soukous as a whole. The Parisian scene was viewed as a simplified and commercialised take on what was viewed as proper soukous/rumba. That, and the songs themselves weren't exactly strong on the lyrical side, they were essentially style over substance. It's like how some people viewed disco as a watered down, bastardised version of funk and soul back in the day.

Ahhh I see that makes sense.

I would say the true proper name is sebene for you know, sebene and rhumba for the slow rhythm guitar dominated love songs but the name “Ndombolo” is what people abroad call the Congolese sebene based on the popularity of the dance and in regards to the genre being named after dances I think the name Ndombolo stuck better to people compared to names like Koyimbiko ( Katshou-Katshou) of Kisanola. That’s my take.

Ndombolo is in reality just the music that Wenge Musica used playing (1990-1997) and most bands of the 3th generation who had their own music-style (Viva La Musica, Victoria Eleison, Anti Choc, Big Stars, etc.) adopting it to stay relevant in the music-genre. Its a mix of Cavacha (not the one of the 70s, but that Zaiko used to play in the 80s), the one of Victoria Eleison (I don't remember how it used to call it and it isn't mentioned anymore) with that of Choc Stars. With a little bit of folkloric rhythm from Bandundu and Kongo Central, that of Bandundu they like to call it tshabuala. You can hear it on songs like Kalayi Boeing, Ndombolo ya Solo, Augustine and Mulolo.

Congolese music does normally not have a proper name. It was the foreign press that always used to give names to our music-genre. In the early 70s, it was called Soum Djoum, because Tabu Ley. From the mid 70s to early 80s, they were calling it Cavacha, because of the famous dance Zaiko had and introduced the drum-rhythm (machini ya Kauka) created by the late Meridjo Belobi. From the mid 80s it was called Kwassa-Kwassa. Then from the early 90s it was called Soukous, but the Kinshasa-based artists refused to be refered like that, seeing Soukous-artists based in Paris (Kanda Bongo Man, Diblo Dibala, Aurlus Mabele, Dr Sakis, etc.) artists who were killing the genre and giving people abroad a fake image about our music. Then when the dance Ndombolo became popular first by JB Mpiana in 1997, who was hitting the charts in Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia, followed by General Defao with Sala Noki and then Koffi Olomide with Loi, our music was called Ndombolo and it didnt change until now. Around 2006, it was almost called Kisanola and the foreign press already stratin to refer our music like that, writing already article in that way. But the succes of the dance Kisanola didnt last long like Ndombolo, Kwassa-Kwassa and Cavacha, which made our music still being called Ndombolo and it coincinced with the rise of rumba.

Was it that Kin based musicians did not want to associate with the name Soukous because many of Soukous stars did not only live in France but were also from Brazzaville side? Is it still alive that Kin based musicians feel musicians from Brazza are inferior?

No, it has nothing do to with that. Congolese artists of the 3th generation had alot respect for Brazza-artists like Youlou Mabiala, Pamelo Mounka, Theo Blaise Kounkou, Pierre Mountuari and Edo Nganga. King Kester Emeneya often cited them as his models.

Not only Congolese artists based in Kinshasa weren't liking Soukous. Also the Congolese community in Paris and even those  living in Zaire Soukous. It was pissing them off. The Congolese public like difficult texts, poetry and songs with a message, while Soukous was just animation, very fast music and little text and when there was a text, it was mostly just of a low level. That's why artists like Diblo Dibala & Kanda Bongo Man never performed in Kinshasa, while they were filling stadium in Africa and toured in Latin America & the West-Indies. Artists like Koffi Olomide and King Kester Emeneya didn't want to be refered like Soukous-artists, because they saw it as a different and something that was killing our music.



from 2:27 Koffi talking about it.

Only Pepe Kalle and Abeti Masikini were respecting Soukous and at some point also doing it for commercial reasons.

Ndombolo is a dance....

Indeed difficult to tell