Music of Africa

Music of Africa

• African music is a vital part of everyday life for African people.
• It is used for work, religion, ceremonies, and communication.
• Singing, dancing, hand clapping, and drumming are crucial elements in various ceremonies, such as births, deaths, initiations, marriages, and funerals.
• Music and dance are also vital in religious expressions and political events.
• African music has greatly influenced global music styles, especially in contemporary American, Latin American, and European music.
• The rhythmic structures and spiritual characteristics of African music are significant to developing unique jazz forms.

Traditional Music of Africa

• African Traditional music serves practical purposes, often used in ceremonial rites like birth, death, marriage, succession, worship, and spirit invocations.
• Some music has work-related or social functions, while others, in many traditional societies, serve as entertainment.
• The interlocking structural format of African music arises from its overlapping and dense texture, as well as complex rhythms.

Afrobeat

• Afrobeat is a music genre that blends West African and Black American music.

Apala

• Apala is a musical genre originating from Nigeria, influenced by the Yoruba tribe.
• It's used to wake up worshippers after fasting during Ramadan.
• Instruments used in Apala include the rattle (sekere), thumb piano (agidigbo), bell (agogo), and two or three talking drums.

Axe

• Axe is a popular musical style from Salvador, Bahia, and Brazil.
• It combines Afro-Caribbean styles like the marcha, reggae, and calypso.
• Axe is performed by carnival bands.

Jit

• Jit is a fast-paced and intense percussive dance music from Zimbabwe.
• It features drums with guitar accompaniment, heavily influenced by mbira-based guitar styles.

Jive

• Jive is a popular South African music genre known for its lively and uninhibited variation of the jitterbug, a swing dance form.

Juju

• Juju is a popular music style from Nigeria rooted in traditional Yoruba rhythms.
• Although the instruments used are more Western in origin, drums, keyboards, pedal steel guitar, and accordion are common, along with the traditional chon-dun (talking or squeeze drum).

Kwassa Kwassa

• Kwassa Kwassa is a dance style that originated in Zaire in the late 1980s.
• It was popularized by Kanda Bongo Man.
• This dance style involves hip movements back and forth, with arms following the hips.

Marabi

• Marabi is a South African three-chord township music genre popular in the 1930s-1960s.
• It evolved into African jazz.
• The keyboard style of Marabi blends American jazz, ragtime, and blues with African origins.
• Characterized by simple chords in varying patterns and repetitive harmony over extended periods to allow for more dance time.