91

Since the 1960 generation of Pierre Amédée to the generation of « coupé-décalé » in the 2000s, the Ivorian urban music stood out for their eclecticism and a certain profusion of genres. Except for Ernesto Djedjé’s ziglibithy (1977-1982), no Ivorian genre has succeeded in establishing beyond the Ivorian borders before the emergence of zouglou music. Since the release of the album Gboglo Koffi in 1991, zouglou, originally a students’ protest music, has become the main Ivorian urban music and one of the most popular genres in Francophone African space. It is also becoming one of the African urban music most listened in France. More than its share inking, this dynamics of zouglou music is the result of strong support of the media and the opening will of its iconic figures like Magic System, Espoir 2000, Les Garagistes, to the other fashionable urban music (RnB, rai, reggae, zouk, etc.). This universalization effort of Ivorian artists made of zouglou the representative of a new kind of world music.