Vampire Weekend-Giving Up The Gun / The Very Best-Warm Heart Of Africa / Brenda Fassie-Vulindlela / Bhundu Boys-Jit Jive

This track owes a lot to the sound on the Brenda Fassie track. The Vampire Weekend track is faster but has the same 'space' around the vocals and the drums. Vampire Weekend have spoken about the influence of Brenda Fassie on their music.

The following elements of Kramer's theory can be applied to The music of Vampire Weekend:

1. is, on some level and in some way, ironic.
2. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present.
3. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts.
4. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures.
5. embraces contradictions.

Ezra Koenig sang lead on the title track of The Very Best's album from 2009. The style of The Very Best isn't too much of a sonic leap from Vampire Weekend. The main difference is one of authenticity as two of The Very Best are from Mali.



This Brenda Fassie track has a very modern western style. The bubbling synth underpinning the song owes quite a lot to European dance music filtered through an African sensibility and style.


The Bhundu Boys came to fame in the U.K. in the 1980s thanks to John Peel and Andy Kershaw. They are another band that have a sound that Vampire Weekend have utilised in their own music.