My first attempt at something remotely anthropological...

Here is my first attempt at defining a research topic/question for my project. I'm sure this will need further refining, but it will be interesting to revisit this in a couple of months and examine how far away from my original plan my final output actually strayed.


Assignment: Write a statement, of no more than two single-spaced pages, outlining a topic, the social scientific problem it presents, some ruling question/s, and a specification of field site. The subject matter may be your research project or an imaginary, but otherwise feasible project. 

Since the early 1990s, Ivory Coast has faced an amalgam of political, economic and other forms of societal conflict. Even though the breakout of the civil war resulting in the partition of the country in 2002 is considered by many as the highpoint of this tension (and hence the focus of the greatest amount of academic inquiry), the reality is that Ivory Coast, like many countries that have been disturbed by civil conflict, moved and continues to move through a multiplicity of phases that have shaped its current socio-political landscape. Throughout these transformations, popular music has been recognized to have played a substantive role (McGovern, 2011). In this context, “popular music” is recognized as distinct from “traditional music” in what Austin Emielu defined as ”African pop”, “a social concept which is constructed or created through prevailing socio-historical processes” (Emielu, 2011). As such, the emergence of the Zouglou genre in the early 90s and Coupé-Décalé in 2002 - both periods being coterminous with heightened levels of social tension in the country - can be seen as forms of communal response to the perceived imbalances and injustices that these styles were constructed to confront.

This assumption is made evident through a study of the lyrics and themes of the music that has been produced during these periods; however, as noted by Rob Rosenthal and Richard Flacks, song meanings as constructed by audiences are a factor of several complex dynamics including genres, musical codes, sonority, live performance, artistes’ images etc. Lyrics are therefore not equal to the message received by the audience (Rosenthal & Flacks, 2011). This difficulty with semantics is further compounded by the impossibility to positively measure the impacts of these musical styles on the nurturing or resolution of the struggles out of which they arose. In this light, the use of ethnography as a set of methods and framework to present and understand the culture and motivations of the actors engaged in the structuring of the musical, social and political landscape of Ivory Coast seems to be a necessary task. Moreover, by studying the divergences of these two particular musical styles (i.e Zouglou and Coupé-Décalé) one might be able to unmask convergences and thus abstract generalizations on the relationships that exist between music and social dynamics, in particular war and peace.

Zouglou can easily be seen as a medium through which marginalized youths have asserted themselves as a group, and have created a discursive space to communicate their demands for social inclusion and intergenerational justice to a national audience (Schumann, 2012). In this respect, Zouglou has already been the subject of an extensive body of academic study and has since received the most of attention. However, Coupé-Décalé’s function in the conflictual relationships that have shaped the country’s socio-political landscape since 2002 is less readily definable. Described by some as a form of social escapism (Boka, 2013) and a mostly apolitical musical style (Kohlhagen, 2004), existing studies of Coupé-Décalé seem to view it through a purely musicological or sociological lens, with most focusing on the ostensible meanings recovered from an analysis of the song lyrics and the lifestyles that the artistes aim to project. This music is seen by many scholars and journalists as a way for Ivoirians to merely cope with the instability that debilitated their country during that period. In 2005, Vladimir Cagnolari wrote “For a few hours, the room was transformed into an ephemeral festive temple of recklessness and "fun" that confronted the socio-political problems of a country that is still waiting for peace. …In a musical landscape dominated by patriotic and military music, Coupé-Décalé arrives as a breath of fresh air to forget the difficult context in which Ivorians are living.” (Cagnolari, 2005)

However, if we agree with Rosenthal and Flacks in their claim that meanings in music are complex and dynamic things associated with a myriad of factors that are at times out of the artistes’ control, we can then reform Coupé-Décalé as a form of subliminal political confrontation whose concealed meanings need to be uncovered. By viewing Coupé-Décalé as more than mere music, but rather as a subculture of sorts with actors influencing it from both sides of its boundaries, we can attempt to delayer it and thus better comprehend the concealed political undertones it carries. Why for example, one might ask, did the original perpetrators of the movement (the ‘Jet Set’ as they called themselves) organize themselves as a form of “government”? (President Douk Saga, Papa Ministre etc.)  Was this purely coincidental? Or was it the result of a conscious (or subconscious) process that attempted to reclaim the political order of a country whose elected officials were failing to perform their duties.

In attempting to resolve the problems outlined above, spending time in the field is a necessary process that will be characterized with data collection and other means of empirical research. As such, the “field” will be defined as the landscape through which this music was birthed and the environment that contributed to its evolution. It may therefore be challenging to circumscribe this field to a definitive spatial locality since these two musical styles are transcontinental in both their inception and proliferation. Zouglou was indeed born in the harsh conditions of Ivory Coast’s universities but “exported” to Europe, while Coupé-Décalé was spawned in posh Parisian nightclubs and “imported” back to Ivory Coast. These styles can consequently be said to have had both “local” and “foreign” impacts, however defined from the frame of reference that one decides to take. The site of this project will thus span the same global expanses as the music it aims to analyze and occur both in France and in Ivory Coast, more specifically in Paris and Abidjan. Within these cities, any institution that may lend itself to the promotion of a discursive, observational or participatory process between the investigator and the identified actors will serve as a space to undertake research. Examples of such institutions range from university campuses to nightclubs, and from formal governmental bodies to concert venues.

As noted earlier, Zouglou and Coupé-Décalé were born amid troubling circumstances in Ivory Coast. Even though it is daunting to readily identify the specific impacts of these musical styles on the socio-political situation of the country, one can irrefutably claim that these genres did have an impact. By using ethnography to collect data on these influences from a varied collection of actors ranging from artistes to scholars, an account of the methods with which the musical arts can be used as a form of defense against societal angst can be created. This research would fit into a larger body of work aimed to better understand the nexus between music and social transformations as seen from an offensive (music as a catalyst to press for social change) or defensive (music as a means to combat external forces attempting to reshape the status quo) standpoint.

References

Boka, A. (2013). Le sens d'un genre musical en Afrique. L'Harmattan.

Cagnolari, V. (2005, 04 18). RFI Musique - Archives. Retrieved 10 12, 2014, from RFI: http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr/articles/064/article_15448.asp

Emielu, A. (2011). Some theoretical perspectives. Popular Music, 371–388.

Kohlhagen, D. (2004). FRIME, ESCROQUERIE ET COSMOPOLITISME, Le succès du « coupé-décalé » en Afrique et ailleurs. Politique africaine, 92-100.

McGovern, M. (2011). Making War in Cote d'Ivoire.

Rosenthal, R., & Flacks, R. (2011). Playing for Change : Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements. Paradigm Publishers.

Schumann, A. (2012). A GENERATION OF ORPHANS: THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CRISIS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE AS SEEN THROUGH POPULAR MUSIC. The Journal of the International African Institute, 535-555.