Understand in 30 Seconds · In Plain Words
Quick guide to mbalax
Sourced or Silent · CC BY-SA 4.0Mbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia.
01 · What it is
MusicVocal, percussive, or instrumental sound tradition carried by community performers.
02 · Where & name
SenegalWritten in its own script on record as Mbalax.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited sourceEvery claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is mbalax in plain words?
Mbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. In local script on record, it is written Mbalax.
Where is mbalax practised or documented?
Sources on this page place mbalax in Senegal.
What is the current condition of mbalax today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this mbalax entry?
Cite as: "mbalax." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/mbalax, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
The tradition & historical record
1 min read · 1 sourceMbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. The musical style is rooted in instrumental and vocal styles accompanied by polyrhythmic sabar drumming of the Wolof, a social identity that includes both the original Wolof people of the Greater Senegambia region and the urban panethnic identity that arose during colonialism.
In the 1970s, mbalax arose as Senegalese fused indigenous music styles with urban dance music from the African diaspora, the West, and the continent. These foreign sounds included U.S. soul, jazz, and salsa. Afro Cuban musics from the diaspora, Congolese rumba, and rock were also fused with the rhythms of sabar that were now played on the electric bass, guitar and keyboards.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mbalax”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
mbalax is West African musical style, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 13 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 1
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