Amapiano ( Zulu for "the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

s") is a style of

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

music that emerged in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the mid 2010s. It is a hybrid of

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

lounge Lounge may refer to: Architecture * Lounge, the living room of a dwelling * Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby * Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar * Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...

music characterized by synths and wide percussive basslines. It is distinguished by high-pitched piano melodies,

Kwaito Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music that features the use of African sounds and samples. Kwaito songs occur at a slower tempo range than other styles of h ...

basslines, low tempo 1990s South African house rhythms and

percussions A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excl ...

from another local subgenre of house known as Tribal house.

Origins

Although the genre gained popularity in

Katlehong Katlehong is a large township in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is 28 km south-east of Johannesburg and south of Germiston between two other townships of Thokoza and Vosloorus next to the N3 highway. It forms part of the City of E ...

, the township east of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, there is a lot of ambiguity and debate concerning its origins, with various accounts of the musical styles in the Johannesburg townships –

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

Vosloorus Vosloorus is a large township situated south of Boksburg and just east of Katlehong in Ekurhuleni, just 30 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg, Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana la ...

and

. Because of the genre's similarities with Bacardi, some people assert the genre began in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. Various accounts as to who formed the popular genre make it impossible to accurately pinpoint its origins. An important element of the genre is the use of the "log drum", a wide percussive bassline, whose creation has been attributed to MDU aka TRP. Amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small stated:

I don’t know what happened. I don't know how he figured out the log drum. Amapiano music has always been there, but he’s the one who came up with the log drum sound. These boys like experimenting. They always check out new plug-ins. So when Mdu figured it out, he ran with it.

Artists and DJs

For a list of amapiano producers, vocalists and disc jockeys, see:

Amapiano musicians Amapiano ( Zulu for "the pianos") is a style of house music that emerged in South Africa in the mid 2010s. It is a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music characterized by synths and wide percussive basslines. It is distinguished by high-pi ...

Popularity

In 2019, the genre experienced increased popularity across the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n continent with noted increases in digital streams and chart successes in countries far from its South African origin. In 2022, the American online music store

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used ...

added the genre to its platform with it own dedicated charts and playlists. The genre was popular amongst young people on the platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, which saw various dance challenges being made, which fueled the dancing scene in South Africa.

References

{{House music African electronic dance music House music genres South African styles of music