From the 80s till early 90s, Kadongo Kamu was influenced by musicians such as Peterson Mutebi, Dan Mugula, Sebadduka Toffa, Fred Ssonko, Livingstone Kasozi, Fred Masagazi, Baligidde, Abuman Mukungu, Gerald Mukasa, Sauda Nakakaawa, Matia Luyima, Herman Basudde, and Paulo Kafeero[3] music genres drew from Kadongo Kamu, making it the most influential style of music in Uganda.
In the early 1990s, a new music genre afro ragga locally called Kidandali formed by Rasta Rob, Kid Fox, Ras Khan, Messe, Shanks Vivid, Menton Summer, Ragga Dee, Bebe Cool and Jose Chameleone Bobi Wine and Steve Jean - who would later produce their songs.
[7] The drums are used in unison with various other melodic musical instruments ranging from chordophones like the ennanga harp and the entongoli lyre, lamellophones, aerophones, and idiophones and the locally made fiddle called kadingidi.
Music is played for dancing in the community, Call and response style of singing is common with the Bantu[8] from the 19th century.
There are many artist from several tribes like bagwere have waisana,benenego, rapper sky dee,area b, waikere ,bluzman etc, Bagisu have san sea,ben,nutty neithan etc, Basoga have crazy mc,racheal magola,maro etc.
Talents have developed from ages of Sister Charity, Chance Kahindo and Rasta Charz to the years of Ray G, Jolow, Allan Toniks, Seyo, T Bro, Emily Kikazi, Muzz Joe, T Paul, Rachael T, Mat Henry, CJ Champion to Penny Patra, Amani Amaniga, Carol Kay, Prettie Immaq and more of the new guys on block.
The growth in music events, especially in bars of Mbarara, Rukungiri, Kabale, Fort Portal, Ishaka, Kasese and Kamwenge gives platforms to the starting artists to be heard of.
Because of Uganda's turbulent political history, there was never enough time for there to be a thriving pop music industry until relative peace was restored in the late 1980s.
By then, musicians like Philly Lutaaya, Afrigo Band, and Elly Wamala were the few Ugandan acts to have had mainstream music success.
Musicians like, Carol Nakimera, Kezia Nambi, Fred Maiso, Kads Band, Rasta Rob, Menton Summer were on top of the Ugandan music game between 1990 and 1997.
Artists like, Livingstone Kasozi, Herman Basudde and Paulo Kafeero also played a great role in bringing live music near to the fans.
Thanks to musician Red Banton (the Five star general) who rose to fame with his Noonya Money hit song that played country wide.
Red Banton ruled the Ugandan music scene until the year 2000 when Jose Chameleone returned from Kenya with his "Mama Mia" song that turned into a National anthem in Uganda and East Africa at large.
The turning point, however, came with the formation of the record label Eagles Production which was responsible for producing artists like Mesach Semakula, Geoffrey Lutaaya, Ronald Mayinja and Haruna Mubiru.
The label continued to produce more talent, especially female artists like Ronald Mayinja, Geoffrey Lutaaya, Mesach Semakula, Roy Kapale, Mariam Ndagire, Phionah Mukasa, Mariam Mulinde, Queen Florence, The late Harriet Kisaakye Cathy Kusasira, Irene Namatovu and Stecia Mayanja.
He went on to release a number of other hits like: Swimming Pool, Njagal Ebbere, Ekyaapa, Obuffumbo Bwa Liizi, Ngenda Kusiba Farm and Omuchaina.
By the end of the year 2010, Abdu Mulaasi had changed the sound of KadongoKamu hence introducing Urban Kadongo Kamu.
But they didn't create any marked improvement in the quality and sound of the music they found, as it remained pretty simplistic and heavily based on Dem Bow.
It is not until very recently that we have begun to also see new Ugandan artists like Rabadaba, Sizza and Fidempa create a more modern version of dancehall.
Because of the digital revolution, there is access to modern production technologies in Uganda hence the "beats" that current local producers are creating are high quality and not far behind the American ones.
[23] Around the middle of the previous decade, more acts started joining the fray, with Rocky Giant being one of the first rappers to be embraced in the mainstream.
Since then there has been a flurry of activity on the scene with a sizable number of rappers enjoying relative success in the music industry and on the radio circuit.
Musicians like Jay-P and keko are among a new breed of Ugandan hip hop acts appealing to a broader audience, with their music featuring on international platforms like MTV.
It was not until circa 2008 that a number of musicians started to embrace the style, with Myco Chris and Baby Joe among those in Diaspora that must be credited.
Recently, artists like Nick Nola, Richy, Pallaso, Woodz and Yoyo have spread the appeal of the genre further.
[25] Just after the turn of the century, the styles in gospel became more diverse, with various groups like Sauti,[26] and First Love adding to the urban sound created by Limit X.
[27] She was followed by Wilson Bugembe, another musician who was readily embraced by the listening public with his songs becoming national hits, cutting across all demographics.
The lack of any distribution structure means that there is little to no incentive for capital investment in artist development or music sales.
Attempts by some of these organizations to make use of an under-utilized and largely ignored copyright law to generate revenue from music distribution have proved fruitless.
Their initial projects were aimed at helping the localisation of hip-hop, though they have recently been facilitating capacity building work (audio production, copyright knowledge) through the support of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).