Afrobeat Explained
Posted on August 4, 2009 - Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Afrobeat Explained
Afrobeat comes from a the southern region of Nigeria. It was a 1960’s thing influenced in part by the free jazz movement – the Americans. The man who was at the forefront of the Afrobeat movement was Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He went through many different types of music and then modernised it, changing it by taking different aspects of other forms of modern music then putting that together to form Afrobeat.
Afrobeat is a blend of different styles of music. When you listen to an Afrobeat band the main area that stands out is the jazz influence. The harmonies are often jazzy and there is a lot of improvisation involved in this music. The electric piano is at the heart of the music and you can also hear echoes of classical music. Afrobeat is really just a way of putting together all those influences and combining them with traditional African music. Making it is very powerful emotionally.
Politics is a key part to the Afrobeat sound. The founding fathers, like Fela, were into social criticism as a way of promoting social change. Whatever your form of art, it must reflect on the times you live in. The music is passionate and confrontational because of the times the originators were living in. If you look back at all the African countries, there was a transition from the old colonial governments to self governance in the majority of the African countries. Africans found out that self-determination did not mean an end to all of the problems in society. In fact, some countries were much worse to live in once they started ruling themselves. That was where the strong, confrontational attitude of Afrobeat came from.
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