![]() ![]() The mélange of performance styles and cultural identities that Coplan identifies reflects the complex and interwoven social fabric of South African life. The histories of competing local rural and urban influences, as well as those of the West, are considered and the negotiations and appropriations from these are shown as integral to the complexities of black city music in South Africa. The attention to detail lavished on the historical sections is commendable as Coplan blends together narratives of politics and popular culture, highlighting tensions around music, religion, class, region and the quest to be recognized as 'civilized'. In Township Tonight! develops a historical narrative of black urban music and theatre (although the latter is given much less attention than the former) from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. In this endeavour Coplan undoubtedly succeeds. This new text is prefaced by an acknowledgement that it is not an exhaustive compendium but provides a story of black performing arts in South Africa. ![]() ![]() These reviews seem to have been taken on board by Coplan in the production of the second, and much expanded (to 472 from 288 pages), edition of his seminal text (indeed, he remarks on being struck by his naïvety and arrogance when re-reading his first edition). In 1985 the first edition of In Township Tonight! was received with plaudits for its breadth and originality, but also words of caution over bias and naïvety. ![]()
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