Afrobeats – The Voice of A New African Movement

Afrobeats is a term that is thrown around a lot nowadays, but what is its origin story? All great music has an analogy. People are moved by good music because of how amazingly similar it is to the things and feelings that gave it its inspiration. Human nature cannot function without the kind of joy that music gives. The great unifier and powerful force is music – something that people with varying opinions on everything and anything may share.
We live in a time where the rest of the world is becoming more aware of Africa because of its music. The genre – Afrobeats, is currently dominating the charts, and everyone is grooving to it.
One’s body is forced to dance as soon as Afrobeats is played because of its heavy bass percussion and the melodic voices that sing it. Afrobeat started in Ghana in the 1920s even though the term “Afrobeats” was first used in 1968.
The term “Afrobeats” should not be confused with Afrobeat. These two sounds and genres are completely dissimilar. Afrobeat is a genre that was heavily influenced by the 1970s fusion of jazz with traditional music from Ghana and Nigeria. The new sound that emerged at the beginning of the twenty-first century is known as Afrobeats.
It combines the sounds of rap, reggae, dancehall, and R&B with numerous influences drawn from its African roots. The outcome is a pretty interesting mix that has a great sound.
The song’s main character in Afrobeats music is the rhythm, which frequently plays a more important role than the lyrics and is virtually always more prominent than the other instrumentals. Another characteristic of Afrobeats is the distinctively west African accented English, which, depending on the performers’ backgrounds, is frequently mixed with local slang, pidgin English, as well as local Nigerian or Ghanaian languages.
Artists like Davido, Kelvyn Boy, Wiz Kid, Burna Boy, Kidi, King Promise, Tiwa Savage, Rhema, Joe Boy, Fire Boy, Tems and Asake are at the forefront of the current Afrobeats wave and are leading the charge, pushing the culture and representing it in all of its deserving glory. Due to their crossover success, the genre is now in high demand beyond its continental borders.
The pounding drum beat rhythms that make up Afrobeats, whether electronic or instrumental, are what make it most recognisable. These beats have a lot of traditional West African drum rhythms and the ancestor of the Afrobeat genre in common. The rhythm in Afrobeats music serves as more than simply the foundation for the melody; it also assumes a pivotal role that is frequently on par with or even more significant than the lyrics and the other instrumentals.
Fuse ODG, a Ghanaian-born British musician, contributed to the UK’s afrobeats craze. Additionally, he was the first artist to reach the top of the iTunes World Chart, and he won the Best African Act honour at the 2013 MOBO Awards.
With the song “Antenna,” which peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, he experienced his first commercial triumph. He then released “Azonto,” which contributed to the growing ubiquity of afrobeats and dance in the UK. Such songs and the Azonto dance craze inspired black Britons to embrace their African roots rather than try to blend in with the British-Caribbean population as was the custom in the past.
When talking about Afrobeats, Sarkodie, Africa’s most lauded rapper, must be acknowledged. The Azonto wave gained popularity thanks to his song “You Go Kill Me.” People from all over the world danced to the lovely song and he later released works of art like “Adonai”, “Painkiller”, “RNS”, and others.
In these discussions, DJs are frequently overlooked; two well-known DJs from this era are DJ Jimmy Jatt and DJ Humility. Because of the efforts of these pioneers, we now have DJs like DJ Spinall, DJ Xclusive, and DJ Cuppy who are discovering and spreading the newest Afrobeats-inspired sounds. DJ Spinall was the first African DJ to perform at SXSW, which is an annual music and film festival in 2015.
Today’s afrobeats is extremely diverse. Afrobeat was a significant tributary, but Afrobeats has taken those influences and spread them globally in a way that, in our opinion, now surpasses nominations for “World Album.”
The leadership in the Hiphop/R&B sectors used to be more representative; now, that trend has been reversed, and even in Hiphop, which is an African American-created culture, there are fewer African Americans in leadership positions than there are in the overall population.
This should be prevented from happening to Afrobeats; we want to tell these stories, own them, and control the majority of the seats.
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