This article is concerned with the historical transformations of Zimbabwean music performance, particularly popular music. It covers mainly the colonial period and to a limited extent the first ten years of independence. The article analyses music-making and performance as cultural production. The musicians involved in the process of cultural production are characterised as "cultural workers", that is, professional and non-professional, commercial and noncommercial, rural and traditional, urban and modern individuals, whose occupation or part of their occupation involves culture. The article investigates the processes that have led to the evolution of what we may refer to as "commercial cultural workers", that is, popular music performers who make part of or their living from the music. Among the processes behind the evolution are colonisation, urbanisation and transformations within the political economy of African societies. These processes occurred within the context of colonial institutions such as churches, the army, private companies, municipalities and the mass media. These changes led to the specialisation and commercialisation of cultural performance.
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