Welcome to the Culture Corner, a column written by our culture team, in which they delve deeper into people, topics and ideas within the zeitgeist that they just cannot get out of their heads.
In this inaugural column, our Culture Editor, Theolin Tembo, looks at the conversation between Tyla's debut album "TYLA" and her sophomore album “A*POP”.
During Tyla’s speech at the South African Music Awards (SAMA), which was sweet and charming, she touched on something which has helped me solidify some of my pontifications and ruminations that I have been having about her artistry and sounds.
For those who may not know, Tyla's mega-hit 2023 single, “Water,” catapulted her to global stardom, earning her the distinction of being the highest-charting African female soloist on the Billboard Hot 100 with the 2x-platinum single, and her first GRAMMY victory for Best African Music Performance.
She has since gone on to collect more accolades with more Billboard Awards and another Grammy Award for her song, “Push 2 Start,” the breakout hit from the deluxe edition of her debut album “TYLA+”.
Locally, she made waves with her 2019 debut "Getting Late", and ever since then, it felt like Johannesburg-born Tyla Seethal was destined to go on to global success.
It is easy to say that now, seeing that she has already achieved that. However, her speech while accepting the International Achievement Award really highlighted how she has had to chart a path to success for herself without having predetermined checkpoints.
“I can't even explain the feeling I have right now, standing on the stage. This is my first time at the SAMAs. I just remember being a little girl dreaming of this day. Obviously, I had the dream of travelling the world and becoming a pop star, but a big dream of mine was to come to the SAMAs,” the two-time Grammy award winner said.
“...There's never been a Tyla before me, and I don't have a roadmap. I don't have someone to call and ask how they did things and which steps to make.
“So, as I stumbled through my career and my life, now, growing up as a woman and an artist, in front of the world, I just thank South Africa for being there for me, and for supporting me, and just for, you know, everything that inspires me,” she said.
“South Africa runs through my veins. It shows in the way I speak, the way I dance ... I just love my country so much, and I want to take this moment to celebrate all the artists from here.”
The 24-year-old international songstress has had the unenviable task of being the first South African pop star to achieve global success, to the degree that she has, all while navigating global expectations and scrutiny that come with that.
Her scrutiny has come less from South Africans, who see her as a national treasure, and more from the West (namely the United States of America), where they struggle to understand multiculturalism in a way that we have already lived through.
We certainly have our issues, but almost every South African remembers witnessing or attending events where you were exposed to cultural or religious traditions from a culture you were not born into, and knowing to have respect for someone’s differences and embracing the cultural exchange.
South Africans have nailed the art of being proudly patriotic externally while being boisterously critical towards our nation. We do not always get this right, but for a country 32 years into democracy, we are still finding our footing.
That being said, her SAMA speech and the act of honouring other artists while accepting her award have aided in assisting me to share my thoughts on her music.
The temptation was there to just write a traditional review, especially given the dearth of South African reviews in contrast to the American ones. However, an important disclaimer to mention is that I am not a music critic.
Instead, I am a coloured man in his mid-30s raised on a staple of South African popular culture. So ultimately, it is entirely up to you how much weight and credence you want to give my thoughts.
I wanted to look at what we can glean from what Tyla is saying with her artistry - namely her debut album “TYLA” and her sophomore album “A*POP”.
I have been listening to both interchangeably since her latest album, and in doing so, it pointed out a lot of touch points and presented a lot of various strands of ideas to want to chase down, but there is also so much consistency about her sonic palate.
When listening to “A*POP”, I did not immediately get it. It was not as smooth a listen as “TYLA” and honestly my first listen left me wanting. When I heard the title, I had prepared myself for something more infused with Gqom, a genre which dominated the SA pop airwaves in the late 2010s.
I was even a little hopeful for some Yaadt beats - a genre synonymous with coloured people.
It was unfair to place those expectations on her music, and honestly, it was an error in judgement expecting her to deliver that. Instead, “A*POP” took a good three or four listens to settle within my mind.
After sitting with it, I could hear that she was pushing the Popiano (Pop-Amapiano) sounds she delivered and introduced on her debut album “TYLA” into a new direction, and breaking the mould that people want her to fit into.
With “TYLA” that was such an easy listen, and I immediately played that album top-to-bottom. It was smooth and a lovely listening experience. Something some have come to call “safe”.
I quickly realised that what Tyla did with “A*POP” was a genius move at delivering such a broad palate of sonic tastes from “THAT GIRL” to “DOUBLE BLIND” and “FEEL SOMETHING”. Being so experimental in her sound frees herself to go in any direction hereafter.
She will certainly face critiques for “A*POP” being all over the place, but to my ear, she was intentional about going down the unbeaten path. Including “FAIRYTALE” and “KISS” on the same album is an example of this.
The snippet of “KISS” she posted online did make it a little jarring hearing vocals on the beat, but now it is such an exciting song to listen to.
A place where you can see her growth is her inclusion of bridges. Bridges have been notoriously tricky for the newer generation of artists to tackle because they have to be sonically different, without being jarring, and still feel consistent with the song.
I appreciate that we got bridges we got on “IS IT LOVE” and “SHE DID IT AGAIN”. The only criticism with that her collab on the latter lacks a musical interval, or as the folks online have been saying, “a dance break”.
A consistent criticism I have despite my love for both “TYLA” and “A*POP” is the lack of harmonies in the second half of her songs. With her debut album, she was criticised for the over-reliance on choir chants - which are a staple of local music - to end her songs, but with “A*POP” there felt like an over-correction, and the back half of songs feels empty.
Especially in light of “A*POP”, the issue is not the songs itself, but rather the layering of instruments and vocals in the mixing. The background vocals she does have sometimes feel drowned out or too far in the back of the mix.
Something Tyla also deserves to be commended for was the inclusion of local artists in “A*POP” because on her debut we saw a more global approach with features of Tems, Becky G, Skillibeng and Gunna.
She flips that on “A*POP” and with the exception of Zara Larsson, we get local artists such as Liquideep, Babalwa M and Mawhoo who help elevate their featured songs.
When looking at those two aspects side-by-side, she shows her love for the continent and those within the diaspora, but she is also prioritising her roots. She shows her appreciation for them all.
On “A*POP” Tyla is being bold, unapologetic and taking a risk. She is also pushing South African pop in a new avenue. We’ve been raised on music stations ranging from 5FM to Ukhozi FM. The sounds of those wildly different stations was bound to produce someone sonically adventurous as Tyla.
Other astute people have touched on the 2000s local influence on the album, but something I want to highlight is how Tyla is having an impact on coloured culture.
As a Capetonian coloured, we’re very accustomed to dominating the discussion on coloured culture with our Afrikaaps lingo and hot takes on food, but Tyla is also giving voice to the Coloured experience that does not get enough attention.
By being who she is, she is showing up for Joburg Coloureds who have lived a different experience, and are comfortable with their blackness. In turn, it allows us to have different conversations about Coloured identity.
One TikTok by Romantha Official summed it up: “One thing about this girlie is that she is healing parts of the coloured, (and) the black community, bit by bit by bit, by her personality, with her humble demeanour, her growth, her exponential growth, and that the fact that she is bridging gaps…”
Tyla has so much pressure on her, with all the scrutiny, not even accounting for the Americans who struggle to understand the coloured identity, but she continues to be a shining example of what it means to be South African. She is the best of us.
Our humour, our tenacity, our love of our diversity and culture, and also our humility and imperfections.
I look forward to seeing where her journey takes us next, both sonically and culturally.
culture_thenational@nationalmg.co.za