Music of Ghana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ghana has many varied styles of traditional and modern music, due to its vibrant ethnic groups and geographic position in West Africa, enjoying cosmopolitan cultures. The most well known genre to have originated in Ghana is Highlife, which among youth had in the late 1990s had incorporated Hip-Hop influences to establish a newer hybrid genre, known as Hiplife.
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[edit] Traditional music
Traditional music in Ghana is based on two factors: ethnic groups and geography. The country is home to numerous ethnic groups, whose musical styles can be put into two main categories:
[edit] Southern
Inhabited by ethnic groups speaking broad Kwa and Gbe language groups. The cultures of these fertile forested regions were isolated from Sudanic influence that dominated the North. The music of southern groups are highly associated with social or spiritual function, and rely on complex polyrhythmical patterns played by drums and bells, as well as a stronger emphasis laid in harmonized song. Under the Southern category, there branch out two main groups:
- Akan and Ga ethnic musical genres, including Fante, Ashanti and Akuapem groups. This category is known for complex court music, including the Akan atumpan and Ga kpanlogo styles, and a huge log xylophone used in asonko music. The Seprewa harp, which resembles a smaller kora, is the only main string instrument from the Southern and Central areas of Ghana, played by the Akan-speaking peoples and is interlinked with a long history.
- Ewe musical genres, whose folk styles are related to the music of Benin and Togo. The Ewe have also contributed popular styles, especially the agbadza and borborbor, a konkoma highlife fusion that was invented in the early 1950s in chicken Kpandu. See: Ewe music
[edit] Northern
The music styles of this region, which lies in the sparsely vegtated Sudan and Sahel grassland belts, are generally grouped into a larger Sahelian West African musical umbrella category, due to ethnic migrations and cultures historically crossing borders from the rest of the region into the country during the Songhai Empire and Mossi empires abroad, and the indigenous Dagomba, and Mamprussi states. Peoples of this region base musical composition on stringed, wind, melodic or light percussion instruments, as compared with that of Southern category, which relies mostly on complex polyrhythmic composition of a variety of drums and bells. Two main areas can be identified under the northern category:
- North and Northeastern Ghana is known for talking drum ensembles, goje fiddle and Molo lute music, played by the Gur-speaking Frafra, Gurunsi and Dagomba nations, as well as by Hausa, Mande-speaking Ligbi and Fulani minorities.
- Upper-Northwestern Ghana is home to the Dagara, Lobi, Wala and Sissala peoples, who are known for complex interlocking Gyil xylophone folk music with double meters.
[edit] List of Traditional Instruments
[edit] Northern
- Donno/Dondo/Lunna/Kalangu - Varieties of Hourglass-shaped Talking drums
- Goje - Traditional Fiddle
- Molo - Sahelian lute
- Musical bow
- Gyil - large resonant Xylophones
- Shekere
- Calabash
[edit] Southern
- Aburukuwa
- Sogo - the largest of the supporting drums used to play in Atsiã
- Kidi - a drum about two feet tall
- Kaganu - a narrow drum or membranophone.
- Totodzi
- Kloboto
- Atoke
- Axatse - a rattle or idiophone.
[edit] Popular Music
[edit] Colonial period
During the colonial era, Africa's Gold Coast was a hotbed of musical syncretism. Rhythms from across West Africa, especially gombe and ashiko from Sierra Leone, Liberian guitar-styles like dagomba, mainline and fireman, Fante osibisaba, European brass bands and sea shanties and Christian music, were all combined into a melting pot that became highlife.
[edit] Early split: guitar-bands and dance highlife
[edit] Mid-20th century and the invention of Ghanaian pop
While pan-Ghanaian music had been developed for some time, the middle of the 20th century saw the development of distinctly Ghanaian pop music. Highlife incorporated elements of swing, jazz, rock, ska and soukous, and saw its first inroads into the culture of its neighbours in West Africa and across the rest of the continent. To a much lesser extent, Ghanaian musicians found success in the United States and, briefly, the United Kingdom with the surprise success of Osibisa's Afro-rock in the 1970s.
[edit] Guitar-bands in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s
In the 1930s, Sam's Trio, led by Jacob Sam, was the most influential of the highlife guitar-bands. Their "Yaa Amponsah", three versions of which were recorded in 1928 for Zonophone, was a major hit that remains a popular staple of numerous highlife bands. The next major guitar-band leader was E. K. Nyame, who led the Akan Trio and sang in Twi. Nyame also added the double bass and more elements of the Western hemisphere, including jazz and Cuban music. In the 1960s, dance highlife was more popular than guitar-band highlife; most of the guitar bands began using the electric guitar until a roots revival in the mid-1970s.
[edit] Dance highlife in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s
Dance highlife evolved during World War II, when American jazz and swing became popular with the arrival of servicemen from the United States and United Kingdom. After independence in 1957, the socialist government began encouraging folk music, but highlife remained popular and influences from Trinidadian and Congolese music. E. T. Mensah was the most influential musician of this period, and his band The Tempos frequently accompanied the president. The original bandleader of The Tempos was Guy Warren, who was responsible for introducing Caribbean music to Ghana and, later, was known for a series of innovative fusions of African rhythms and American jazz. King Bruce, Jerry Hansen and Stan Plange also led influential dance bands during the 1950s and 60s. By the 1970s, however, pop music from Europe and the US dominated the Ghanaian scene until a mid-1970s roots revival.
[edit] 1970s: Roots revival
By the beginning of the 1970s, traditionally styled highlife had been overtaken by electric guitar bands and pop-dance music. Since 1966 and the fall of President Kwame Nkrumah, many Ghanaian musicians moved abroad, settling in the US, UK and Nigeria. Highlife bands like Okukuseku recorded in Lagos or Nigeria's eastern Igbo region. In 1971, the Soul to Soul music festival was held in Accra. Several legendary American musicians played, including Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner and Carlos Santana. With the exception of Mexican-American Santana, these American superstars were all black, and their presence in Accra was seen as legitimizing Ghanaian music. Though the concert is now mostly remembered for its role as a catalyst in the subsequent Ghanaian roots revival, it also led to increased popularity for American rock and soul. Inspired by the American musicians, new guitar bands arose in Ghana, including the Ashanti Brothers, Nana Ampadu & the African Brothers, The City Boys and more. Musicians such as CK Mann, Daniel Amponsah and Eddie Donkor incorporated new elements, especially from Jamaican reggae. A group called Wulomei also arose in the 1970s, leading a Ga cultural revival to encourage Ghanaian youths to support their own countrymen's music. By the 1980s, the UK was experiencing a boom in African music as Ghanaians and others moved there in large numbers. The group Hi-Life International was probably the most influential band of the period, and others included Jon K, Dade Krama, Orchestra Jazira and Ben Brako. In the middle of the decade, however, British immigration laws changed, and the focus of Ghanaian emigration moved to Germany.
The Ghanaian-German community created a form of highlife called Burger-highlife. The most influential early burgher highlife musician was George Darko, whose "Akoo Te Brofo" coined the term and is considered the beginning of the genre. Burgher highlife was extremely popular in Ghana, especially after computer-generated dance beats were added to the mix. The same period saw a Ghanaian community appear in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada. Pat Thomas is probably the most famous Ghanaian-Canadian musician. Other emigres include Ghanaian-American Obo Addy, the Ghanaian-Swiss Andy Vans and the Ghanaian-Dutch Kumbi Salleh. In Ghana itself during the 1980s, gospel and reggae became extremely popular. The Genesis Gospel Singers were the most widely-known gospel band. Late 1990s a new generation of artists discovered the so called hip-life. The originator of this style is Reggie Rockstone, a Ghanaian musician who dabbled with hip-hop in the United States before finding his unique style. Hip-life has since proliferated and spawned stars such as Reggie Rockstone, Obrafour, Akyeame and Tic Tac. BY:Manimekan
See also: Ghanaian hip hop
[edit] External links
- Contemporary Ghanaian Music Videos
- Ghana Music.com Ghana Music News, Latest Music Videos, Photos, Reviews, Lyrics
- Music in Ghana Music in Ghana.
- Traditional Ghanaian music group Hayor Bibimma
- Ghana music lyrics, audio, blogs, more Music in Ghana.
- Ghana Base Music Powering the Ghanaian Music Online.
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