Lior Phillips'South African Popular Music is a compact history of one country's music for Bloomsbury's Genre 33 1/3 Series. Compared to other entries in this series, this one's scope moves beyond a single genre or style of music. Instead, the history of popular music in South African is intrinsically tied to the history of Apartheid.

While brief, Phillips is comprehensive in tracing the traditional practice of music, through its adaptations to colonial powers, but the main discussion begins with music in he 1940s. Each chapter focuses on either key individuals, a particular style, or important historical events. These chapters are chronological, moving from the 1940s through to the present. A few of the notable items discussed are: Nelson Mandela, Miraim Makeba, Juluka, and the Sharpesville Massacre.

With the music being tied so closely to the restrictive and race based governmental structure of South Africa, Phillips details artists motivations to either just be entertainers or to advocate from their platform, some do both, while others let their art speak for itself. The racial component is very important for this book, as African artist have long been ignored or only acknowledged peripherally in music history. This is seen early in this work, the first chapter describing the Westernization of the song "Mbube" into "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Phillips continues to document this, speaking of the split cultures in South Africa, with non white artist living in a second country, performing in whatever space they could. Notably, Paul Simon journey to South Africa to record Graceland, working with many South African artists, but with only his name on the album.

Fortunately, Apartheid did come to an end, and in this incisive history, Phillips documents the work or musicians in accomplishing this goal. He also discusses the boycott of South Africa by performers and those who chose to break that boycott.

I look forward to more works in this series as they are often a thought provoking blend of art and the societies that produce them. Here, South African Popular Music speaks to the power of protest and building on tradition.