[HN Gopher] Prince Nico Mbarga's biggest hit outsold any of The ...
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Prince Nico Mbarga's biggest hit outsold any of The Beatles' (2017)
Author : Geekette
Score : 48 points
Date : 2024-11-22 10:58 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.narratively.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.narratively.com)
| Geekette wrote:
| Non-paywalled copy: https://archive.ph/Rw054
| ano-ther wrote:
| Prince Nico Mbarga "Sweet Mother":
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3mecNrIaWOA
| recursive wrote:
| I guess it must be intentional, but to my ear, the tuning
| sounds way off between the guitar and bass. Maybe this is part
| of the tradition or something, but I find it to be so far off,
| it's hard to listen to.
| ChrisRR wrote:
| Saved you a click: Because he was popular in africa
| bdcravens wrote:
| Which makes it even more impressive: he sold more based off of
| popularity in one continent, versus a band that was presumably
| popular worldwide.
| itsoktocry wrote:
| > _"His only weakness was temptation," says Rogers. For alongside
| Esame, his wife, and Lucy, his first love, he had numerous other
| lovers._
|
| Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's
| treated as a quaint personality trait.
|
| Also, the Beatles aren't famous because _I Want to Hold Your
| Hand_ sold 12 million copies. The Beatles have 50 multi-million
| selling singles.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Or a sign of pride or virility, reserved for (or a prerequisite
| to become) the rich, powerful, famous, and leaders.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| I don't know who gets cancelled for having multiple lovers,
| even extramarital lovers. Maybe it should be cancel-worthy
| (depending on your definition of cancel) for people who build
| their careers on "family values", but it's practically a plus
| for a rock star.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| It depends not how many lovers you have but how you have
| them.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I think the "at times" refers to periods of times, have
| multiple lovers at end of the 1800s and find yourself
| described as absolutely irredeemable.
| PrismCrystal wrote:
| Depends where at the end of the 1800s. Belle Epoque France
| saw adultery on the part of men almost normalized among the
| middle and upper classes, and everyone made use of
| prostitutes.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| ok, so it depends on time, place, gender, probably also
| age and occupation.
| soperj wrote:
| Tiger Woods.
|
| I think it was mostly because he was such a self-assured
| prick though, and so it was easy to pile on.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Don't forget, there was also reckless driving involved
| there and a ton of bad press. The only fallout was losing a
| few of his many endorsement deals. He kept his videogame.
| He kept golfing. "Facing appropriate consequences for your
| actions" is not being cancelled.
| soperj wrote:
| He had 14 Majors, and was well on his way to passing Jack
| Nicklaus. He'll never pass him now.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Him falling off his game is on him. Or are you really
| implying some entity "cancelled" Tiger Woods' golfing
| skills or there was some conspiracy to prevent Tiger from
| winning because he cheated on his wife?
| soperj wrote:
| He took a bunch of time off because of public pressure.
| Was never the same.
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| I don't think he was cancelled so much as a laughingstock
| after his 2009 Thanksgiving car crash. That sent the value
| of the "I am Tiger Woods" marketing to zero.
| https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/11/24/tiger-woods-
| car-...
| PrismCrystal wrote:
| > Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times
| it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
|
| You can see this same tension in Fela Kuti fandom and
| scholarship, where people almost have to choose between
| lionizing him as a anti-colonialist or anti-dictatorship hero
| and downplaying negative sides so that his sociopolitical
| impact feels more powerful, or deploring his treatment of women
| as something that tarnished his whole career.
| blacksqr wrote:
| "I can resist anything except temptation" --Oscar Wilde
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| John Lennon was also quite a horrible husband to Cynthia.
| racl101 wrote:
| > Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times
| it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
|
| Yeah sometimes you see that in passing. Some famous people seem
| to get a pass especially if they are not polarizing nor brazen,
| as opposed to, say, someone like Donald Trump. But in the end,
| they hurt and abuse people all the same.
|
| For example, almost every bio I've seen on YouTube about
| Richard Feynman treats his proclivity of banging his
| colleagues' wives as nothing more than some charming quirk or
| idiosyncrasy (usually to differentiate him from the bookish
| physicists of the time) at best, and a peccadillo at worst.
|
| The worst description I've read yet of his behavior was
| summarized as: "he just loved women."
|
| It's messed up.
| deafpolygon wrote:
| Because his hit was sold across Africa, not Europe or North
| America.
| macspoofing wrote:
| I imagine there are countless of individuals that are very famous
| within some region, but little known outside of it. It's not easy
| to have global recognition.
| readyplayernull wrote:
| Although slavery is a society illness, the mixture of African
| and American (Caribean, South America, North America) cultures
| generated a huge musical heritage. Could this be the largest
| branch of music in history?
| II2II wrote:
| Yes, and it is also something that we are coming to terms with
| now that we have a more global community.
|
| The hit in question, the one that outsold any individual
| Beatles single was from 1976. That was a time when most people
| received news from around the globe in print, with most of
| those print publications being regional and a handful being
| national. Something similar could be said for radio, though
| some people could hear stories from afar on the shortwave
| bands. That was more the exception than the rule though,
| typically of greatest interest to those who wanted to hear
| voices from their homeland or those keenly interested in
| learning about the world. (Even then, language was typically a
| barrier. When it wasn't a barrier, most of the stations were
| propaganda machines.)
|
| Even though your claim undoubtedly remains true, at least we
| live in a world where those stories can leak out.
| Hilift wrote:
| Rihanna sold more records in the UK than the Beatles.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_art...
| nathancahill wrote:
| If you're interested in unheard music from Africa, this is an
| incredible project: https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com
|
| Linking to the Bandcamp but they are on Youtube as well. They
| have new vinyl releases of some fantastic funk and soul spanning
| the last 5-6 decades in Africa.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| Pro tip to anyone looking for a place to start: a lot of disco
| tracks that came out of Nigeria in the 70s/80s are fantastic.
| draw_down wrote:
| Hell yeah!! Dizzy K and William Onyeabor are big favorites of
| mine.
| draw_down wrote:
| I would also recommend the "Radiooooo" website/app. You pick a
| country and a decade, and it plays songs. Great way to discover
| new old music.
| wholinator2 wrote:
| What an awesome app! It even uses the correct names for
| countries across the decades
| mberg wrote:
| If you like it checkout this epic soukous song called Nairobi
| Nights by Loketo Soukous Starts that includes Sweet Mother.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93pse3-23A
| taraparo wrote:
| Very different rent but this reminds me of the story of the US
| musician Sixto Rodriguez. Who became very popular in South
| African without him knowing. I recommend watching the documentary
| "Searching for Sugar Man"
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_for_Sugar_Man
| takinola wrote:
| Prince Nico Mbarga was not someone I expected to see on HN. What
| a throwback to the past. Sweet Mother was practically required on
| the playlist at any event where your mother was going to be
| recognized in some form or the other (which is pretty much every
| important event)
| Cheer2171 wrote:
| Clickbait headline. It outsold any of The Beatles singles *in
| Africa*:
|
| > "Sweet Mother," his 1976 one-hit wonder, had sold at least
| thirteen million copies across the African continent - more than
| The Beatles' bestseller "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
| rdlw wrote:
| What's the clickbait? "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold 12
| million. Is the clickbait that it's downplaying the
| achievement, since "Sweet Mother" only sold well in Africa?
| Cpoll wrote:
| It's a bit ambiguous in your quote, but "I Want to Hold Your
| Hand" sold 12MM *globally* (source: the song's wiki page).
| major505 wrote:
| I was waching the other day a documentary a bout a rock moviment
| called Zanrock, very common in Zambia in the 70s. They would
| perform for great crowds and press discs in South Africa.
|
| Unfourtunaly civil wars, the conflit in Rodhesia, and the
| lifestyle of Sex drugs and rock and roll in a country ravaged by
| AIDS, killed a lot of musicians destroyed the movement. A guy
| started colleccting old records and released on spotify.
|
| of the bands, theres a great one called Witch that reminds me a
| lot of bands like Steppenwolf and Black Sabath.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kcs8gftls
| pvg wrote:
| Do you remember the name of the docu? I ended up in a small
| Zamrock clickhole when _Ted Lasso_ used this track in an
| episode outro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUOYLJ8IYI but
| didn't get much further than wikipedia and a couple of google
| results.
| aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA wrote:
| Maybe https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5666750/
| nbbaier wrote:
| Funnily enough, this is man is namesake!
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(page generated 2024-11-22 23:00 UTC)