{
  "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
  "theme": {
    "name": "1976",
    "criterion": "Released in 1976, and it has to be the best evidence that its own scene was somewhere other than London or New York that year. A great 1976 record from a place already at the centre of things does not qualify.",
    "drawnFrom": [
      {
        "slug": "afrobeat",
        "name": "Afrobeat",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "anadolu-rock",
        "name": "Anadolu Rock",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/anadolu-rock/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "dub",
        "name": "Dub",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "gnawa",
        "name": "Gnawa",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/gnawa/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "highlife",
        "name": "Highlife",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/highlife/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "reggae",
        "name": "Reggae",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/reggae/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "zamrock",
        "name": "Zamrock",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/zamrock/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "genre": null,
  "genreUrl": null,
  "brief": "Eleven records, six countries, one year. Lagos, Kingston, Casablanca, Lusaka, Istanbul and Accra all having a better 1976 than anywhere with a music press.",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/",
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "curator": {
    "slug": "the-desk",
    "name": "The Waxonia Desk",
    "bio": "The people who write the rankings on this site. We keep the lists honest, we argue about the order, and we get asked the same question more than any other: where should someone actually start. These are our answers.",
    "link": "https://waxonia.com/",
    "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-desk/"
  },
  "ordered": false,
  "pickCount": 11,
  "years": {
    "first": 1976,
    "last": 1976
  },
  "picks": [
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/fela-kuti-and-africa-70/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve minutes calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies, released in Nigeria while that army was in power. They burned his compound down for it and threw his mother out of a window. Nothing else here cost its maker as much.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "afrobeat",
          "name": "Afrobeat",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSg31Ignw4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "prince-nico-mbarga--sweet-mother",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/prince-nico-mbarga--sweet-mother/",
      "title": "Sweet Mother",
      "artist": "Prince Nico Mbarga",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/prince-nico-mbarga/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Rogers All Stars",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Reportedly the biggest-selling African record ever made, in a year when the British charts had no idea it existed. Highlife at its most untroubled, and the exact opposite of the entry above from the same country in the same twelve months.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "highlife",
          "name": "Highlife",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/highlife/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "sung-to-someone",
          "name": "Sung to Someone",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Prince%20Nico%20Mbarga%20Sweet%20Mother",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmecBppkOQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "osibisa--sunshine-day",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/osibisa--sunshine-day/",
      "title": "Sunshine Day",
      "artist": "Osibisa",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/osibisa/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Bronze",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Ghanaian musicians in London making a record that got played on daytime radio without softening what it was. Included because the traffic went both ways in 1976, and this is the year's best evidence of it.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "highlife",
          "name": "Highlife",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/highlife/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Osibisa%20Sunshine%20Day",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MeH3OdgGHso",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "ngozi-family--nizakupanga-ngozi",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ngozi-family--nizakupanga-ngozi/",
      "title": "Nizakupanga Ngozi",
      "artist": "Ngozi Family",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ngozi-family/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Zamrock at full volume — a Zambian band playing heavier than most of what was coming out of Britain that year, in a scene almost no one outside the country heard until reissues found it thirty years later.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "zamrock",
          "name": "Zamrock",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/zamrock/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ngozi%20Family%20Nizakupanga%20Ngozi",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OTNuku4mjis",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "witch--waile",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/witch--waile/",
      "title": "Waile",
      "artist": "WITCH",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/witch/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The other great Zambian band of the same moment, and proof the entry above was a scene rather than an outlier. Two of the eleven records here come from a country with no export industry for music at all.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "zamrock",
          "name": "Zamrock",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/zamrock/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/WITCH%20Waile",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCNRBnI4PA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "nass-el-ghiwane--bouderbala",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/nass-el-ghiwane--bouderbala/",
      "title": "Bouderbala",
      "artist": "Nass El Ghiwane",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/nass-el-ghiwane/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Gnawa rhythm and Moroccan poetry played by a group Scorsese later called the Rolling Stones of Africa. Recorded with almost no Western instrumentation in a year when that was a choice, not a limitation.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "gnawa",
          "name": "Gnawa",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/gnawa/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala",
          "exact": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "selda-bagcan--yaz-gazeteci-yaz",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/selda-bagcan--yaz-gazeteci-yaz/",
      "title": "Yaz Gazeteci Yaz",
      "artist": "Selda Bağcan",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/selda-bagcan/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "\"Write it down, journalist, write it.\" Turkish folk melody over a fuzz guitar, sung by a woman who was imprisoned repeatedly for records like this one. The year's clearest case of a local form being used to say something dangerous.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "anadolu-rock",
          "name": "Anadolu Rock",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/anadolu-rock/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Selda%20Ba%C4%9Fcan%20Yaz%20Gazeteci%20Yaz",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ReKfCicUoRE",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "augustus-pablo--king-tubby-meets-rockers-uptown",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/augustus-pablo--king-tubby-meets-rockers-uptown/",
      "title": "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown",
      "artist": "Augustus Pablo",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/augustus-pablo/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Yard Music",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The most-cited dub record ever made, and it is a melodica line and a mixing desk. Kingston in 1976 was inventing the studio-as-instrument while London was still arguing about guitars.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "dub",
          "name": "Dub",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-roots",
          "name": "Roots",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-roots/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-ghosts",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-ghosts/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Augustus%20Pablo%20King%20Tubby%20Meets%20Rockers%20Uptown",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oxAl3Jijs20",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "the-upsetters--super-ape",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-upsetters--super-ape/",
      "title": "Super Ape",
      "artist": "The Upsetters",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-upsetters/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Island",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Lee Perry's Black Ark at its peak, which means a four-track studio being pushed into producing something no larger studio could. Jamaica has three records on this list and could support ten.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "dub",
          "name": "Dub",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Upsetters%20Super%20Ape",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MTOomS0HfdA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "junior-murvin--police-and-thieves",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/junior-murvin--police-and-thieves/",
      "title": "Police and Thieves",
      "artist": "Junior Murvin",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/junior-murvin/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Island",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Written about Jamaican election violence and adopted within months by a London that had just had the Notting Hill riot. The one record here whose journey out of its own scene happened immediately rather than in retrospect.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "reggae",
          "name": "Reggae",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/reggae/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Junior%20Murvin%20Police%20and%20Thieves",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Z2M3VlB8E",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "the-revolutionaries--kunta-kinte-dub",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-revolutionaries--kunta-kinte-dub/",
      "title": "Kunta Kinte Dub",
      "artist": "The Revolutionaries",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-revolutionaries/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Well Charge",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A Kingston rhythm that would not stay in its decade: sped up and cut into jungle plates twenty years later, which puts it in the same story as several records on our 1994 list. 1976 is where that line starts.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "dub",
          "name": "Dub",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-bass-weight",
          "name": "Bass Weight",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-bass-weight/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-ghosts",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-ghosts/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Revolutionaries%20Kunta%20Kinte%20Dub",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=K6XDIje4vJU",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}