It’s difficult to fully grasp the tremendous impact African music has had on the contemporary music world. From hip-hop and reggae to dancehall and pop, African artists (*defined by an artist who was born, or lived a significant amount of time, in Africa) have quietly but definitively shaped the sounds and rhythms across the music landscape over the last two centuries. More recently, however, a wave of young artists led by the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, WizKid, Tiwa Savage, and Mr. Eazi, has stepped firmly into the spotlight and cemented their position within the global mainstream.
West African Afrobeat has had a massive impact on modern Western music.
These examples are just a few that show the effect of the African diaspora on the world's music. From ska and reggae to country and rock, there are glimpses of Africa hiding in plain sight in tunes everywhere. The next time you listen to your favorite song, imagine how drastically different music would be without it.
While afrobeat has obvious and traceable influences, it is imperative to note that fuji music is purely organic and ever-evolving. This is perhaps why it finds residency with rave-making musicians in every generation of Nigerian pop music many years later.
In his earlier book, The Black Atlantic, Gilroy rejects the notion that Black culture and music can be bound to one geographical region. Afrobeats definitely exemplifies this syncretism as a transnational genre that is now getting international attention. David Drake writes particularly about popular Nigerian music and notes it is "Picking up on trends from the U.S., Jamaica, and Trinidad, they reimagine diasporic influences and—more often than not—completely reinvent them".
West African music is a kaleidoscope of lively, danceable drumming rhythms and active participation by performers and audience alike.
Islam’s influence on the culture of West Africa goes as far back as at least the 9th century, helped along by the introduction of camels to trade routes between the North of Africa and Sub-Saharan West Africa. Generally speaking, music influenced by Islam in West Africa commonly includes the use of stringed instruments, like the goje. On the other hand, traditional secular music often makes more use of drums like the djembe.
West African Afrobeat has unique rhythmic and harmonic structures.
The sounds of popular music throughout West Africa are comparable to a combination of Western, Latin American and traditional African music. Genres such as Highlife, Afro-Calypso and African Jazz reflect this fusion and have developed upon these styles' sounds.
Africa boasts a rich, varied landscape of musical styles that transcends borders. Some, like Nigerian fuji and Ghanaian highlife, which melded with other influences to create the popular Afrobeat genre, boast complex intersecting rhythms and percussion that can be heard in funk and jazz as well. Meanwhile, lovers of Afropop should recognize the percussion elements of Nigerian jùjú and the grooves of Congolese ndombolo in electronic and pop music across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia. Even characteristics culled from African sacred music, like the expert beating of drums, call and response vocalization, and the meticulous layering of rhythms make people instantly recognize African musical elements in styles from all over the world, from gospel to techno.
West African music is a kaleidoscope of lively, danceable drumming rhythms and active participation by performers and audience alike. Its focus on rhythmic percussion and melody over harmony distinguishes it from Western classical music or other harmonically-focused folk traditions worldwide.
West Africa’s popular music scene is often made up of a combination of Western, Latin American, and traditional African music. Genres like Highlife, Afro-Calypso, and Afrobeat are fantastic examples of this fusion, and have each developed beyond what they started as.
West African music is the folk music of the regions of West Africa and the west coast of Africa. West African music is closely tied to dance, folklore, art, and religious practices is one of the most recognizable and influential folk music idioms in the world. Its most defining characteristics are its emphasis on polyrhythm (sounds featuring two unique and often conflicting rhythms at once), percussion instrumentation, improvisation, and call-and-response style melodies (the most common melodic structure in West African Music).
West African Afrobeat has been influential in the development of funk, soul, and jazz.
Among an entire planet of folk music idioms and performance traditions, few have been as influential globally as West African Music. Its cultural significance and distinctive sounds have shaped music within the borders of West Africa and folk and popular music from the Americas and other parts of the world. Indeed, music forms such as jazz, funk, Samba, and many other Latin American music genres owe their existence to West African music.
Afrobeat is a music genre with major popularity throughout West Africa. Originating in Ghana in the early 20th century, Afrobeat grew in popularity in the 1960s. This growth was mainly due to the considerable fame of Fela Kuti, the ‘Father of Afrobeat’, and other pivotal artists such as Tony Allen and Ebo Taylor. Afrobeat is influenced by palm-wine music and Ghanaian highlife, as well as jazz, funk, and fuji. Fela Kuti devised the term 'Afrobeat' as early as 1968 in his home country of Nigeria.
Musical traditions from Africa influenced music in the United States, too. Jazz music, blues music, and gospel music all grew from African roots. Spirituals, work calls, and chants coupled with makeshift instruments morphed into blues rhythms and ragtime. Ragtime paved the way for jazz, and elements from all these styles influenced rock and roll and hip-hop music.
Overall, the data did reveal some distinguishable characteristics - namely, more danceable production, an R&B/hip hop vibe, angrier lyrics, simpler vocabulary, and fewer sections. That said, it would appear that just as African music has done its part to shape western music, the Afrobeats genre has been heavily impacted by western music as well. This mutual influence- and the globalization of music in general- seems to allow African stars such as Burna boy, with his husky voice and blithe coolness, to continue to push boundaries and resonate with global audiences without having to diminish or hide his heritage. African artists are both influencing and immersing themselves in the international music scene, yet staying true to their roots in the process.
African musical influence spans beyond borders and traditional African music. It's been shaping music around the world for centuries. It began with the dispersion of millions of Africans around the world during the slave trade. It continued through the 20th and 21st centuries as people traveled to and from Africa. Now today, as the world gets smaller with the internet and more listeners get exposed to new African artists, the evolution continues. Without Africa and the African diaspora, music across the globe wouldn't be what it is today.
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