The evolution of music and its various genres never stops, so it's not surprising that there are always new styles coming up. A genre that is booming lately is Amapiano, which originated in South Africa.
What is Amapiano
Amapiano is a style of house music, a mixture of deep house, jazz and lounge music. Typically, Amapiano tracks have a speed of 111 to 113 beats per minute (=bpm). Amapiano is thus slower than the average house music, but it grooves much more. It is also characterized by piano melodies, kwaito basslines and low-tempo rhythms. An important characteristic of Amapiano is also that it is distinguished by the fact that the vocals are sung in the language and the typical jargon of the performers.
The backgrounds of this genre
Actually, the genre is not that new. It developed about 12 years ago in the backyards of jazz clubs in South Africa. Artists were inspired by jazz music and reworked the pieces at home. When Amapiano was formed, keyboards were placed next to DJs. Other artists could freestyle to the electronic basses and bring in new influences. By the way, that's where the name comes from: AmaPIANO
What is the relevance of the Amapiano genre for the platforms?
Many platforms like Spotify and Beatport have dedicated a separate section to the genre, which even more emphasizes its importance in the world of electronic music.
Amapiano also has a great importance on TikTok. Many Amapiano artists have come up with short dance-choreographies to their music, which people around the world are now dancing to, while spreading the Amapiano style all over the globe. The great thing about it is, that these dance videos are really intergenerational. For instance you can find videos of whole families dancing together: from five-year-old children to grandparents. Learn more about the power of TikTok and its trends in our latest blog! post here.
Given the hype and growing importance of Amapiano in the music world, we didn't hesitate to include this genre on our dig dis! side too. Amapiano was recently added to our upload tool rokket!. This way we have enabled all of our labels to deliver Amapiano releases to the platforms, while at the same time making sure that they are found among similar sounding artists and labels of the same movement, increasing their chances of being featured.
