There’s something I discovered overtime about modern black music worldwide. They were mostly born out of the same cause particularly black liberation. From hip hop to Reggae to Afrobeat. Don’t get me wrong, there are other variations of black music which have cultural significance but the major ones I listed previously coincidentally came from the same cause even though they were all propelled by different people.
Overtime, these genres of music have developed into sub genres that have little or nothing to do with fighting for the cause of black people’s freedom but the major ones were formed for that origin.
Hip hop
Hip hop was formed in the 1970s in the Bronx, New York by African Americans and Caribbeans. It is characterized by rap, urban fashion and dance styles (specifically breakdancing) and indigenous black/African hairstyles like cornrows and braiding. In the 1980s and 1990s,hip hop genre became known worldwide and popularized by legends such as snoop dogg, Dr Dre, Tupac, notorious BIG, ice cube, busta rhymes, Jay-z, etc. By the 2000s,rappers like 50 cent, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake and others came along and the genre evolved and developed into sub genres like trap music, gangster rap, jazz rap, etc. while the genre initially started out as a means for black people in America to get entertained and remember their roots and inculcate self-love to every black person in America, the culture overtime developed into sub genres that talk about parties, sex and others. Though people talk about different things with music, hip hop must still remind the people of whom they are their strength, resilience and love for community.
Reggae
Reggae is a musical genre founded in Jamaica in the late 1960s. It became widespread over the world by the 1970s and was mainly pioneered by legends such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaac, steel pulse, Bunny Wailson, etc. soon after, the genre became a cultural identity to black people worldwide but mostly to those in the Carribean Islands (who are still children of Africa due to slave trade). As a result of this dark past of black history, the genre was used to speak against oppression towards our people, our pains, struggles and strength. It became a great cultural reset especially with its unique style of rhythmic beats, popular patois Jamaican accent, dance steps like waist whining and most importantly popularizing the popular locs hairstyle which is only peculiar to people with natural kinky hair.
Sometimes they also wear knitted hats with bright colors such as red and yellow to cover the locs hair. It’s just similar to the popular durag head cover that became prominent with hip hop culture overtime. Overtime, it developed into sub genres such as dance hall, dub, reggaeton, calypso, reggae fusion. Unlike the main reggae genre, the sub genres focus on subjects like party, sex, love, etc. As much as musicians today will love to be more creative and explorative with the genre, singing about the experiences of our people, engaging beautiful storytelling styles and looking forward to a brighter future won’t be bad to conclude in future music projects under this beautiful genre.
Afrobeat
Although it was said to have originated from Ghana and Nigeria in the 1920s, the genre was birthed in the late 1960s by Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti together with Tony Allen whom he once credited for the existence of the genre. The collab between these two legends was so powerful and inspiring to the younger generation of Afrobeat stars who would later develop them into sub genres that shows how diverse the genre is. The Afrobeat genre was fused with jazz, funk and African traditional music sounds to create the unique genre.
Just like the previous genres I mentioned, Afrobeat was a movement with which late Fela Kuti was at the forefront. Asides it’s groovy and catchy beats, the lyrics were mostly based on political and social issues which were seen as a direct attack on the government. As a result of this, late Fela Kuti endured a lot of persecution and oppression from the government. He also touched on racial bias, colonial rule and its effects on our people as well which he mentioned in broken/pidgin English in his lyrics. The genre is characterized by native languages in Nigeria, Ghana or any other African language. Examples Yoruba, Igbo, Twi, etc. The hairstyles, dress, food and accent are purely African except on different occasion when some of the outfits are borrowed from American pop culture.
Just like I mentioned with the previous genres, the current set of musicians don’t sing about politics and socio-economic issues anymore apart from very few occasions. It’s mainly about party, sex, love, marriage, etc and has now being termed Afrobeats. So there’s a difference between Afrobeat (more political and social) and Afrobeats (party, sex, drinking, etc). Other sub genres of Afrobeat include Afrofusion, Afropop, Afrorap/trap, Alte,etc.
Asides the major ones mentioned, there are still other black musical genres that interest me whether from African Americans, Caribbeans and Africans.
African Americans- Disco, pop, R&B, Rock.
Caribbeans-Soca
Africans- Highlife, juju, Amapiano
From all I’ve written, I hope we black people will collectively embrace our identity, be proud of it and own our creation. We need to protect what we create for the future generations to have something to hold on to as their identity and it is our duty to do that. Then again, we need to start using our genres to spread great messages that will physically and spiritually awaken our people not weakening us constantly. The future is in our hands!!!
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