Pop Post: 80's Synth! 'Africa' by Toto!

I'm feeling whimsical lately, so today we're going to take a look at the hilarity that is 'Africa' by Toto. Hop on into the way-back machine and let's take a ride to 1982.

Photo courtesy AudioFemme.com

First things first: watch the music video. Think long and hard about how we all used to think this stuff was cool. Pay special attention to the gratuitous close-ups of the globe. And if any of you can figure out what exactly is going on with the plot, let me know. All I can figure is there's a library, a librarian, some vaguely African stuff, some pasty white boys, and a fire.

I'll bet you laughed at least 3 times during that video. If not at the serious jammin' faces of these guys, then definitely at the repeated shot of David Paich removing a book titled 'AFRICA' off the shelf.

Okay, time to be serious. Or as serious as you can get with 80's synth music.

What made this song go gold in the United States and Canada and silver in the United Kingdom isn't the....profound....lyrics. It certainly wasn't the music video, or the sex appeal of the band members. No, no. Its the texture. Once again, texture plays a huge part in how intricate and grooving the music sounds.

The band has detailed the processes they went through to get this beat and texure. They talk about how they had no experience with traditional African percussion, so they sat in a studio and jammed out for awhile on a drum set and some congas until they found something that sounded vaguely African. They played around with it, playing it back, over and over, until it started to groove and make sense. That's really the best way to experiment with rhythms - just bang some stuff out until it starts to jam.

Jeff Porcaro, the drummer, talked about how he saw a real African group at the world fair when he was 11 and how each member had one rhythm to play, and they just stuck with it the entire time. That's the defining characteristic of African drum music. You have these insanely challenging rhythms when they are all stacked on top of one another, but when you dissect it, each musician's part is relatively simple. Don't let me lead you to think African drumming groups aren't good musicians - even seasoned, professional (classically trained Western) percussionists have trouble keeping to their part.

If you listen, you can hear all the percussion parts: drumset, cowbell, congas, and a shaker. Add in some spectacularly cheesy synth, a groovy bass line, and long vocal lines, and you've got yourself an 80's hit for the ages.

Dave Paich at least admitted that this song was what a bunch of white guys who have never been to Africa thought Africa would be like. Even though none of us are really sure what Africa has to do with the song. What exactly are they talking about, anyways? Still, I'll probably shelve any ideas that involve places I've never been and know virtually nothing about for my next project.

Just so you know how dedicated I am to this blog, I've been listening to this song on repeat for 20 minutes to get the feel of the rhythms. And now I'm going to be singing "I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AAAAFRICAAAA" for the next week, while people look at me like I've just hopped off the DeLorean with Christopher Lloyd in tow.