When people think of Johannesburg - their first thought is probably the terribly high levels of crime and violence.

No-one can deny the headline-grabbing statistics, but there's also a flip side which tells a different story.

"Kwaito is going to be around for a long time. It's going to become a part of mainstream music. I find nuances in it that so called critics will never understand. It's the core of township feeling" Jazz legend Hugh Masekela

Johannesburg - a city where black people could once only walk with identity cards and passes - has emerged from the dark days of apartheid to become a thriving, cosmopolitan African city.

In a country where close to half the population is under the age of 21, youth culture has taken a firm hold and Kwaito music - the new sound of the township - has helped shape a spirit of optimism and self-confidence.

"The youth can now speak openly throught the lyrics", says one of Kwaito's most established stars, Esmile.

"It's a way of life. Kwaito is about the drug dealer in the ghetto who everyone is looking up to because he's driving fine cars.

"It's about the single mother struggling to bring up three children. Kwaito is about ghetto life."

Brazen confidence

One of the pioneers of this new music is DJ and producer Oscar waRona, who says Kwaito originally grew out of American music.

Boom Shaka were spurned by record companies

"It came from house, but we needed to put an African feel into it, so we added our own melodies, congas and basslines," he told me at his home recording studio.

"We started the Boom Shaka band and went on the road, and people just started getting into it. But record companies weren't interested and they all turned us down.

"We had to sell cassettes from the boot of a car. But it became big underground and on the club scene."

Like many dance styles, Kwaito is not performed by a band using live instruments.

Instead, tracks are manufactured digitally in a studio, and played as a backing track on stage.

One of the originators of this form of music was Arthur Mafakote, dubbed the king of Kwaito by the media.

He captured Kwaito's brazen confidence and demand for recognition, with a hit song in 1993 called Don't call me Kaffir - a reference to the offensive word some white people used for blacks.

Rocking the boat

Today, Kwaito is everywhere.

It's all over the radio and TV and its stars are sprawled across billboards and minibus taxis, helping to sell everything from condoms to coca-cola.

Kwaito music may have grown out of the huge political changes in the early 1990s but it declared no allegiance to the new order.

Ghetto Luv - expressing themselves

While black South Africans were celebrating their newly-won social freedoms, Kwaito artists were rocking the boat by questioning the social problems they saw around them.

"This music came in when Mandela was released" says OscarwaRona.

"We felt we were free, we could express ourselves.

"We used to do tracks where we would ask why is the divorce rate so high? Why are little children being found in shabeens drinking?

"People asked how we could question the social morals of older people. They weren't used to such straight talking."

The beat of the street

Undeterred by the initial negative response from the recording industry and the mainstream media, Kwaito's advocates kept up their drive to spread their music.

Eventually it began to infiltrate all forms of youth culture from radio stations like YFM in Johannesburg, to magazines and fashion.

"A majority of artists who are big right now - we made them they made us," says YFM's DJ Fresh.

"We knew what urban youth wanted. They wanted a lot of local music."

Kwaito has evolved its own street style. It's not just music, it's the way you walk, talk, dance and of course, dress.

"The young South African mind today is a goldmine because the bondage of the past is being released. Music and fashion are going to grow hand in hand. The world has yet to see what's coming out of this place" Fashion designer Chubi Mogale

"This is where we're from. We live on the streets we walk on the streets and we knew what was in and what wasn't," says Chubi Mogale of Kwaito fashion label Loxion Culcha.

Street wear also fills the glossy pages of Y - a funky youth magazine, launched soon after YFM, targeting the same market.

A number of internet sites, dedicated to Kwaito, also emerged, including Rage, edited by Maria McCloy.

However, Maria McCloy also has her reservations about Kwaito.

"Kwaito's come a long way but there's lot more growing up to do," she says.

"Some of the acts have great tracks but are not good live. Kwaito lyrics can be very vulgar and some of the songs are very disparaging to women and objectify women sexually."

Finding a message

One musician who is trying put a more constructive message into Kwaito is Mandoza who grew up in Zola, one of the roughest areas of Soweto.

Despite the fact he's now one of Kwaito's hottest stars, he initially didn't like the music at all.

"What I hated was that Kwaito had no message," he says.

Mandoza - trying to find a message in Kwaito

"It was just for dancing. It didn't tell people about good things or bad things. I see myself as a role model now - big time.

"I want to inspire a guy from the ghetto so he can stop hanging around in the corner begging and try and get some life."

His track, Uzoyithola Kkanjani, literally means 'how are you going to get it, if you don't get up and go for it.'

Some older, more established musicians in South Africa may find Kwaito difficult to comprehend, but Hugh Masekela - one the country's musical legends, is a big fan.

"If there's something negative in Kwaito, then it's a drop in the ocean considering what it has achieved," says Maskela.

"There has been criticism of some of the content but older people always seem to be jealous of young people who are coming up with new things."

And poking fun at the older generation seems to be part of the game for some of the young Kwaito artists.

Ghetto Luv are an all-girl group known for their raunchy lyrics and belief in sexual self expression.

When I met them at a restaurant in the inner city suburb of Yeoville they delighted in flaunting their pierced tongues and tattoos."

New directions

While Ghetto Luv are pushing forward the social frontiers, other groups are trying to break new ground musically by fusing elements of r&b, hop-hop and reggae.

One of Kwaito's top outfits, Bongo Maffin, have recently released a song called Mari Ye Phepha with a distinctive latin feel.

"When we performed the song at a free show in Soweto, 15 thousand people were going crazy to the latin beat," said band member Stoan.

Stoan of Bongo Maffin - mixing it with a latin flava

"The response was just deafening. People ask us how we came up with the song. How did we go so far and bring it back home."

Even Hugh Masekela is becoming involved in taking Kwaito in new directions and has worked with Kwaito artists on both his last two albums.

"I'm crazy about it," he says.

"There was a void in our music, so when Kwaito came out I thought we had an identity again. This is the music of our children. I love the dances. My daughter teaches them to me and I do them on stage!"