Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Nigerian and Ghanaian music, jazz, highlife, funk, and chanted vocals,[1] fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. It was named by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who is responsible for the Nigerian influence and spreading the genre outside of Ghana.[1] Fela used it to revolutionize musical structure as well as the political context in his native Nigeria. It was Kuti who coined the term "afrobeat" upon his return from a U.S. tour with his group Nigeria '70 (formerly Koola Lobitos). Afrobeat features chants, call-and-response vocals, and complex, interacting rhythms.[1]

The new sound hailed from a club that he established called the Afrika Shrine. Upon arriving in Nigeria, Kuti also changed the name of his group to Africa '70. The band maintained a five-year residency in the Afrika Shrine from 1970 to 1975 while afrobeat thrived among Nigerian youth. Afrobeat is now one of the most recognizable music genres in the world and has influenced as many Western musicians as it has African ones with its exuberant style and polyrhythms.

Origins

Afrobeat originated from Ghana's highlife and heavy African drumbeats.[2][3] It was later exported to the southern part of Nigeria in the 1970s where Fela Kuti, on his return from Ghana where he learnt the genre, experimented with many different forms of contemporary music of the time.[4][5] Prevalent in his and Lagbaja's music are native African harmonies and rhythms, taking different elements and combining, modernizing, and improvising upon them. Politics are essential to Afrobeat, since founder Kuti used social criticism to pave the way for social change. His message can be described as confrontational and controversial, which can be related to the political climate of most of the African countries in the 1970s, many of which were dealing with political injustice and military corruption while recovering from the transition from colonial governments to self-determination. As the genre spread throughout the African continent many bands took up the style. The recordings of these bands and their songs were rarely heard or exported outside the originating countries but many can now be found on compilation albums and CDs from specialist record shops.

Instrumentation

Big band (15 to 30 pieces: Fela-era afrobeat) and energetic performances

Fela Kuti included the traditional Gbedu drum in his ensemble, with a percussionist pounding out a thunderous rhythm from a 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) drum lying on its side.[7]

Influence

Many jazz musicians have been attracted to afrobeat. From Roy Ayers in the 1970s to Randy Weston in the 1990s, there have been collaborations that have resulted in albums such as Africa: Centre of the World by Roy Ayers, released on the Polydore label in 1981. In 1994 Branford Marsalis, the American jazz saxophonist, included samples of Fela's "Beast of No Nation" on his Buckshot LeFonque album. The new generation of DJs and musicians of the 2000s who have fallen in love with both Kuti's material and other rare releases have made compilations and remixes of these recordings, thus re-introducing the genre to new generations of listeners and fans of afropop and groove (see Afrobeats section below).

Afrobeat has profoundly influenced important contemporary producers and musicians like Brian Eno and David Byrne, who credit Fela Kuti as an essential influence. Both worked on Talking Heads' highly acclaimed 1980 album Remain In Light, which brought polyrhythmic afrobeat influences to Western music. More recently, the horn section of Antibalas have been guest musicians on TV On The Radio's highly acclaimed 2008 album Dear Science, as well as on British band Foals' 2008 album, Antidotes. Some Afrobeat influence can also be found in the music of Vampire Weekend and Paul Simon.

Afrobeats

Recent years have seen the creation of the moniker Afrobeats[8][9] (a term also sometimes used to denote popular Ghanaian music, Hiplife, Afropop or popular Nigerian music, in which Afrobeat is often blended with highlife, fuji music, Jùjú, hiphop, rnB and traditional Yoruba music.

Notable afrobeat musicians

Today

There are several active afrobeat bands worldwide today. Afrobeat today is often mixed with other genres, such as hip hop, makossa, gospel, dancehall and galala.[10]

Modern afrobeat bands/artists include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Grass, Randall F. "Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: The Art of an Afrobeat Rebel". The Drama Review: TDR (MIT Press) 30: 131–148. doi:10.2307/1145717. JSTOR 1145717.
  2. ↑ Chris Nickson. "Ghana Soundz: Afrobeat, Funk and Fusion in the 70's - Various Artists - Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards - AllMusic". AllMusic.
  3. ↑ "The Infectious Songs of Ghanaian Afrobeat". worldmusiccentral.org.
  4. ↑ Clyde Macfarlane (2012-07-18). "Album Review: KonKoma". Think Africa Press. Retrieved 2015-03-22.
  5. ↑ "Radio: AfroBeat Airwaves". Rhapsody.
  6. ↑ David McDavitt (21 April 2006). ""Lead Congas" in Afrobeat". The Afrofunk Music Forum. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  7. ↑ Michael E. Veal (2000). Fela: the life & times of an African musical icon. Temple University Press. p. 3. ISBN 1-56639-765-0.
  8. ↑ Dan Hancox, "The rise of Afrobeats", The Guardian, 19 January 2012.
  9. ↑ Guide to Nigeria's Afrobeats stars. By DJ Edu, BBC Radio 1Xtra, 29 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "Stylistic analysis of afrobeat music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti" (PDF). analysisworldmusic.com. Retrieved 1 August 2010.

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External links

  1. ↑ "The (Afro) beat goes on". The Evening Standard.