Music of Africa genres as the following:

-Music has always play an important role in the Afrobeat

daily lives of Africans. It can be for work,
It is used to describe fusion of Western African
religion, ceremonies, or even communication.
with Black American
-For the African ceremonies, singing, dancing,
music.
clapping, and beating of ==drums have essential
roles even in religious expressions and political Apala (Akpala)

events. It is a musical genre from Nigeria in the Yoruba

tribal style. It used to
-The wide influence of African music spread
throughout the world. It wake-up worshippers after fasting during
Muslim holy feast of Ramadan.
permeated contemporary American, Latin
American, and European styles. Percussion instrumentation includes the rattle
(sekere), thumb piano
-African music is a result of the collective
cultural and musical variety of (agidigbo), bell (agogo), and two or three talking
drums.
more than 50 ethnic divisions of the continent.
Axe
-The organization of this vast continent is a
colonial legacy from European It is a popular genre from Salvador, Bahia, and
Brazil. It fuses the
rule of different nations up to the 19th century,
enabling it to Afro-Caribbean styles of marcha and reggae,
and is played by carnival bands.
incorporate its music with language,
environment, political development, Jit

immigration, and cultural diversity. It is a hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean

dance music played on
-In the particular subject of research are its
rhythmic structures and drum with guitar accompaniment, influenced by
mbira-based guitar styles.
spiritual characteristic that have led to the birth
of jazz forms.\ Jive

It is a popular form of South African music

featuring a lively and
Traditional Music of Africa
uninhibited variation of the jitterbug. Jitter is a
Basically, African music has interlocking
form of swing dance.
structural format. It is
Juju
mainly overlapping and has dense texture as
well as its rhythmic complexity. It is a musical style from Nigeria that relies on
the traditional Yoruba
Its many sources of influence have produced
such varied styles and
rhythms, where instruments are more Western
in origin. A drum kit,
Blues
keyboard, pedal steel guitar, and accordion are
The blues is a musical form of the late 19th
used along with the
century that had deep
traditional dun-dun (talking drum or squeeze
roots in African-American communities, located
drum).
in the so called “Deep South”
Kwassa kwassa
of the United States, where the slaves and their
It is a dance style that began in Zaire in the late descendants used to sing as
1980s, popularized by
they worked in the cotton and vegetable fields.
Kanda Bongo Man. In this style, the hips move
The notes of the blues create an expressive and
back and forth while arms
soulful sound. The
follow the hip movements.
feelings that are evoked are normally
Marbi associated with misfortune, lost love,

It is South African three-chord township music frustration, or loneliness. From extreme joy to
of the 1930s-1960s deep sadness, the blues can

which evolved into African jazz. It is communicate various emotions more

characterized by simple chords in effectively than other musical forms.

varying vamping patterns with repetitive The noted performers are Ray Charles, James
harmony over an extended period of Brown, Cab Calloway,

time to give the dancers more time on the Aretha Franklin, and John Lee Hooker. As well
dance floor. as B.B. King, Bo Diddley,

Erykah Badu, Erica Clapton, Steve Winwood,

Charles Musselwhite, Blues
Vocal Form of African Music
Traveler, Jimmie Vaughan, and Jeff Baxter.
Maracatu

It first surfaced in the African state of

Pernambuco, combining the Soul

strong rhythm of African percussion It was a popular music genre of the 1950s and
instruments with Portuguese melodies. 1960s. It originated in

The maracatu group called nacoes (nations) the United States, and combined elements of
who paraded with a drumming African-American gospel music,

assemble numbering up to 100, are rhythm and blues, and often jazz. The catchy
accompanied by singer, a chorus, and rhythm is accompanied by

coterie of dancers. handclaps and extemporaneous body moves

which are among its important
features. Other characteristics include “call and music utilizes deep bass voices. The vocal
response’’ between the inflections, African accents, and

soloist and the chorus, and an especially intense dramatic changes in dynamic add to the musical
and powerful vocal sounds. interest and effectiveness of

Some important innovators who made the singing.

recording in the 1950s that
Examples:
contributed to the emergence of soul music
We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder
includes Clyde McPhatter, Hank
Rock My Soul
Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles, Little
Richard, Otis Redding, and When the Saints Go Marching In
James Brown were equally influential. Sam Peace Be Still
Cooke and Jackie Wilson are

often acknowledged as “soul forefathers” while

Brown is called as “Godfather Call and Response

of Soul”. It is a method of a succession of two distinct

musical phrases usually
Example of soul music are Ain’t No Mountain
High Enough, Ben, All I rendered by different musicians, where the
second phrase acts as a direct
Could Do Was Cry, Soul to Soul, and Betcha by
Golly Wow. commentary on or response to the first. It is
somewhat same with question

and answer sequence in human

Spiritual communication. It also resembles to the
It is associated with deeply religious person. It verse-chorus form in many vocal compositions.
pertains to a song form,
Example:
known as the “Negro spiritual” sang by the
African slaves in America who Mannish Boy, one of the signature songs by
Muddy Waters
became enslaved by their white communities.
This form of music is used as School Day—Ring. Ring Goes the Bell by Chuck
Berry
outlet to express loneliness and anger. It was a
result of the interaction of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

music and religion from Africa with that of

American. The text, mainly

religious, and sometimes taken from Biblical

psalms or passages, while the