MK as cultural phenomenon: a case study documenting the dispersion of Afrikaans alternative music during the period 2005–2013
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Date
2021-11
Authors
Carstens, Magdalize
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
MK was a channel on the premium package of the paid Digital Satellite Television Service (DSTV) of Multichoice and kykNET in South Africa during the period 2005 to 2013. The channel broadcast music 24/7, using mostly Afrikaans as medium. Through its content and programming, the channel helped to support and build a new identity for the post-apartheid Afrikaans-speaking youth aged 13 to 25 years. While highlighting issues central to the life world of the Afrikaans youth at the time, simultaneously, MK culture set the scene for unique, dissident forms of expression in Afrikaans. A large following was amassed within its first two years of existence, which turned the channel into a cultural phenomenon. As a ‘social influencer’, MK stimulated the formation of new sub-genres in the field of Afrikaans rock and alternative music, subcultures representative of the language use and cultural or countercultural practices of the Afrikaans-speaking youth, and a new-found freedom of self by means of alternative or dissident forms of music. Despite the channel’s widespread influence on various musical, technical, and social platforms, culminating in a lifestyle channel with music videos at its core, no in-depth research on MK exists. To address this hiatus, my study’s objective was to research MK’s philosophy and its legacy regarding the expansion of marginal Afrikaans identities as constructed in alternative Afrikaans music and its subgenres, including hip-hop and rap. Based on this contextual framing, the research question underpinning the study was as follows: How was the dispersion of Afrikaans alternative music related to MK as a cultural phenomenon, and how were social themes such as identity and branding influenced by its specific mode of address, as well as its meta-textual production of discourse? The qualitative methodology of ethnographic case study was found to be a productive approach for my research, documenting MK as a distinctive, single-case cultural phenomenon. As most of the channel’s social media and internet traces have been removed indefinitely, semi-structured interviews with MK stakeholders served as the primary source for my data collection, supplemented by a study of MK archival material. Interviewees were chosen based on their involvement and field of expertise that constituted and helped shape the media image of the channel. These included v production managers, critics, journalists, band members, and managers actively involved with MK during its existence. Archival materials included all MK Awards nominees’ music videos (2007–2013) and the channel’s broadcast programmes. As my study involved a relatively wide range of data sources, thematic analysis has proven to be relevant to my work. While traditionally, researchers have applied the method mainly to textual data, more recently, interview transcripts, field notes, historical or site documents, digital audio files and video files are included among other viable sources of information. Concerning the study of MK as a cultural phenomenon, the method offered a systematic approach to the analysis of my data, which involved the identification of themes or patterns of cultural meaning; coding relevant data according to themes; and interpreting the resulting thematic structures by seeking out overarching patterns as structured by a conceptual framework based on recent scholarship on Afrikaans identity. My research bought to the fore that the channel had been started for a specific target market, for which branding – on TV and at live events – was a major attraction. Visual marketing (on different levels and dimensions) established MK as a brand and helped to create newly established platforms for young musicians, artists, and technicians (such as audio and visual), while simultaneously extending the brand to lifestyle choices and social causes, some of which are still operative today. The variety of programmes, aided by young and ‘funky’ presenters, mediated the many facets of being a post-apartheid Afrikaans-speaking youth, providing a cultural safe space within which to rebel and process their troubled history. It also helped them to find a way forward. On a pragmatic level, MK impacted all Afrikaans rock or alternative bands during its time of existence, leaving a legacy and platform for bands to aspire to international standards for producing music or music videos. Yet, while the success and financial viability of MK were underlined by most of my respondents, one participant intimated that the decision to establish the channel had never been inspired ideologically, but (pragmatically) amounted to a business decision. In this sense, MK’s focus on an alternative Afrikaans niche market seemed to have failed as an economic strategy and eventually led to the channel’s demise. vi Within the ideological realm, contradictions were evident as the channel was found to have brought to the fore multifarious senses of self, most strongly expressed in the opposing identity formations of nostalgia and cynicism, represented in the ‘De la Rey’ phenomenon and Zef culture, respectively. While the Afrikaans nostalgia brand foregrounded exclusivist ethnocentric tendencies associated with the De la Rey subculture, Zef culture was seen as being supportive of a subversive, heterodox Afrikaner counterculture. In propagating both nostalgia and cynicism, the former glorifying the Afrikaner past, and the latter perverting exactly those notions of race and language upheld by the apartheid regime, MK was found to have contributed to new South African discourses grappling with the formation of new identities, and a definition and redefinition of terms such as ‘other’, ‘us’, ‘self’ and ‘them’, deserving of study and analysis. Key words: MK music channel; cultural phenomenon; post-apartheid youth; Afrikaans music; branding; identity formation; Afrikaans alternative music; Afrikaans-speaking youth.
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Keywords
Dissertation (M.Mus. (Music))--University of the Free State, 2021, Digital Satellite Television Service (DSTV), MK Channel, kykNET, Television, Broadcasting