The G.V. Series were a series of 10 inch 78 rpm Gramophone record

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

s produced in Europe and the United States from 1933 to 1958, and exported (or repressed on site) to colonial Tropical Africa. They are credited with introducing Afro-Cuban music into modern African popular culture. The resulting re-interpretations influenced the creation of several genres of African popular music.

The Series

Over 250 titles (double sided records) were produced in the G.V. Series. The records were launched by the British EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 company's His Master's Voice label in 1933, in part because of shrinking demand during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. In the 1940s, HMV reached agreement with other companies, such as RCA Victor to share the royalties of their artists in the production of G.V. Series recordings. Thereafter local distributors were able to request, or press themselves, any of the back catalog of these companies for relatively low cost in Africa, making the records affordable to African listeners for the first time.

At the same time in West Africa (what became Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 and Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, specifically) EMI was recording and releasing Sakara

Sakara music

Sakara music is a form of popular Nigerian music based in the traditions of Yoruba music.It is a Moslem-influenced style, mostly in the form of praise songs, that uses only traditional Yoruba instruments such as the solemn-sounding Goje violin, and the small round Sakara drum, which is similar to a...

, Juju

Juju

A Juju is a supernatural power ascribed to an object.Juju may also refer to:-Geography:* Juju , one of seven districts on the island of Rotuma in Fiji* Juju , a village in the district of Juju on the island of Rotuma-Albums:...

 and Apala

Apala

Apala is a musical genre, originally derived from the Yoruba people of Nigeria.It is a percussion-based style that developed in the late 1930s, when it was used to wake worshippers after fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan...

 music on 78rpm discs in the Parlophone

Parlophone

Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...

 B, HMV JL, HMV JZ and Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 WA/GWA/NGA series (1947–52), as well as HMV owned local labels, such as Ghana's Taymani Special. While there were also domestic record producers beginning to appear in Anglophone West Africa, Francophone Central African music was based on the twin poles of small domestic labels of the 1940s and 50s, and the Latin music supplied by the G.V. Series records and later competitors from Pathé Marconi and Decca. Anglophone West Africa also had twin advantages of having had access to domestic recording and the distribution across West Africa of these recordings by the HMV owned Zonophone

Zonophone

Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903...

 label of African music from 1928.

Cuban music in Africa

While the G.V. Series drew on a wide back catalogue of music, they are best known as the first exposure many Africans had to Afro-Cuban

Afro-Cuban

The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...

 music (specifically Son and Son montuno

Son montuno

The son montuno is a style of the Cuban son, but exactly what it means is not an easy question to answer. The son itself is the most important genre of Cuban popular music. In addition, it is perhaps the most flexible of all forms of Latin-American music...

). Some musicians of the era still refer to these songs not by the Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 titles but by the G.V. numbers of their records.

Nine initial G.V. records were released in 1933, drawn from EMI's back catalogue of '"general ethnic" or "Spanish" recordings, with G.V. 1 being "The Peanut Vendor

The Peanut Vendor

The Peanut Vendor is a Cuban song based on a street-seller's cry, and known as a pregón. It is possibly the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician...

" by Don Azpiazu & his Havana Casino Orchestra, recorded New York City, 13 May 1930. Of particular note were Cuban artists such as Son combo Sexteto Habanero

Sexteto Habanero

The Sexteto Habanero was a famous Cuban musical group which was founded in 1920. It played an important part in the early history of the son.In 1917 four musicians from Oriente, calling themselves Cuarteto Oriental, recorded four numbers for Columbia Records in Havana. The numbers are listed in a...

, Trio Matamoros

Trio Matamoros

The Trio Matamoros were one of the most popular Cuban trova groups. Formed in 1925 by Miguel Matamoros , Rafael Cueto and Siro Rodriguez...

, Don Azpiazú

Don Azpiazu

Don Azpiazú was a leading Cuban orchestral director in the 1920s and 30s. His band introduced authentic Cuban dance music and Cuban musical instruments to a wide audience in the USA...

, Abelardo Valdés, Antonio Machin

Antonio Machín

Antonio Machín was a Cuban singer and musician. His version of El Manisero, recorded in New York, 1930, with Don Azpiazú's orchestra, was the first million record seller for a Cuban artist...

, as well as big band leader Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

, originally recorded in the United States for the American market.

These records spawned some of the most successful modern musical styles West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa. The most notable of these styles is Congolese Rumba ("Soukous") which developed in Leopoldville

Kinshasa

Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....

, Belgian Congo (modern Kinshasa, DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

) in the 1940s and 50s. The guitar styles of Highlife music in British colonial West Africa were also highly influenced by these records. African guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 playing in general, and the electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 in particular, was popularised in part by the music distributed in the G.V. Series records. The music of East Africa was also influenced by the G.V. series, sold through East African Music Stores in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

 as its agents in Lourenço Marques

Maputo

Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...

 and Dar-es-Salaam. But here too, the Cuban musics of the G.V. series quickly had to complete with domestic music produced by EMI and specialist labels like Odeon Swahili.