Pop goes the postcolony: Britain remixes Hugh Tracey’s Malawi

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers the recent efforts of a Britain-based record label to license and remix field recordings collected in Malawi by Hugh Tracey. In particular, I argue that the initiative’s charitable ends should be weighed against musical production and marketing practices that shortchange Malawi and Malawians. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and discourse analysis in Malawi and South Africa, I ask how the project portrays the source materials it utilises and the uptick in cultural awareness it seeks to engender. Factors I focus on include: characterisations of Tracey and his archive, the musical production process, strategic publicity that accompanied the album’s release, and the project’s charitable and musical impacts in contemporary Malawi. Altogether, the article articulates and advocates for a critical approach to musically tinged humanitarian projects in the global South.