Overview of African Music

Study Notes

African music is integral to daily life, used for work, ceremonies, religion, and communication.
It significantly influences global music, giving birth to jazz forms.
The music's diverse cultural background comes from over 50 countries on the continent.
Primarily functional in nature, used for ceremonial rites (birth, death, marriage, succession, worship, and spirit invocations).

Afrobeat: A fusion of West African and Black American music.
Apala (Akpala): A Nigerian musical genre performed by Yoruba tribes to wake worshippers after fasting during Ramadan.
Axe: A popular musical genre from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
Kwasak Kwasak: A dance style popularized in Zaire in the 1980s by Kanda Bongo Man, involving hip movements accompanied by arm movements.
Marabi: A South African three-chord township music genre that evolved into African Jazz, prevalent during the 1930s-1960s.

African music profoundly influences the Western world, contributing to jazz, blues, rock and roll, R&B, and hip hop.
Music reflects life's events, often recounting cruel invasions and occupations.
Songs describe moral values or inspire action.

African musical instruments are categorized into idiophones, chordophones, aerophones, and membranophones.
Idiophones produce sound from the instrument itself (e.g., balafon, castanets).
Membranophones produce sound from a vibrating membrane (e.g., drums, talking drums).
Chordophones produce sound using vibrating strings (e.g., kora, lute).
Aerophones produce sound from vibrating air (e.g., ivory horn, flutes).
Instruments include, djembe, bongo, talking drums, and more.