Les Têtes Brulées are a Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

ian band known for a mellow pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 version of the bikutsi

Bikutsi

Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaounde. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century in West Africa...

 dance music

Dance music

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

. Their name literally means the burnt heads in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, but more likely is meant to imply mindblown or hot heads. They first rose to prominence in the 1980s, and quickly became the most well-known bikutsi band, at home and abroad. However, many critics and fans of the genre did not like their easy-going, pop sound, and the band saw some criticism. They became known for their distinctive costumes, shaved heads and brightly painted bodies, which were meant to evoke traditional Beti

Beti-Pahuin

The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual ethnic groups, they all share a common history and culture. They were...

 scarification.

The band was formed by Jean-Marie Ahanda, and included the 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...

ist Zanzibar, who remains well-known for innovative attachment of foam rubber to the bridge of his guitar, which made the instrument sound like a traditional balafon

Balafon

The balafon is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone...

. Zanzibar's death in 1988 threatened to end the band's future, but they continued performing and recording. Their first LP was Hot Heads, which was also the first full-length recording of bikutsi, and contained lyrics which addressed social issues. The band toured across Africa, Europe, the United States and Japan; some footage of this tour was used in Claire Denis

Claire Denis

Claire Denis is a French film director and Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Early life:...

' film Man No Run. Later, they accompanied the Cameroonian soccer team to a match in Italy, which brought the band many new fans.