African popular music

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"Afropop" redirects here. For the radio program, see Afropop Worldwide.



Afropop (also spelled Afro-Pop or Afro Pop) is a term sometimes used to refer to contemporary African pop music. The term does not refer to a specific style or sound,[1] but is used as a general term for African popular music.

Miriam Makeba, one of the famous singers to emerge from the African continent is often credited with being instrumental to Afropop's rapid growth, particularly during the 1960s.[2] Most of her songs revolved around the notions of freedom and equality.[3][4] William Ruhlmann of AllMusic, while reviewing Makeba's debut eponymous album described her as a "black singer with an exotic, folk-based repertoire who could translate her music into a sophisticated club act."[5] Her first major breakthrough in the United States came in 1967, when "Pata Pata" reached No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard charts. She has been identified as the Empress of African Song, Mama Africa and the Mother of Afropop.[6]

Afro-Cuban comes home[edit]

Orchestra Baobab

Cuban music has been popular in sub-Saharan Africa since the mid twentieth century. It was Cuban music that more than any other, that provided the initial template for Afropop. To the Africans, clave-based Cuban popular music sounded both familiar and exotic.[7] The Encyclopedia of Africa v. 1. states:

"Beginning in the 1940s, Afro-Cuban [son] groups such as Septeto Habanero and Trio Matamoros gained widespread popularity in the Congo region as a result of airplay over Radio Congo Belge, a powerful radio station based in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa DRC). A proliferation of music clubs, recording studios, and concert appearances of Cuban bands in Léopoldville spurred on the Cuban music trend during the late 1940s and 1950s."[8]

Congolese bands started doing Cuban covers and singing the lyrics phonetically. Soon, they were creating their own original Cuban-like compositions, with French lyrics. The Congolese called this new music rumba, although it was really based on the son. The Africans adapted guajeos to electric guitars, and gave them their own regional flavor. The guitar-based music gradually spread out from the Congo, increasingly taking on local sensibilities. This process eventually resulted in the establishment of several different distinct regional genres, such as soukous.[9]

Cuban popular music played a major role in the development of many contemporary genres of African popular music. John Storm Roberts states: "It was the Cuban connection, but increasingly also New York salsa, that provided the major and enduring influences—the ones that went deeper than earlier imitation or passing fashion. The Cuban connection began very early and was to last at least twenty years, being gradually absorbed and re-Africanized."[10] The re-working of Afro-Cuban rhythmic patterns by Africans brings the rhythms full circle.

The re-working of the harmonic patterns reveals a striking difference in perception. The I IV V IV harmonic progression, so common in Cuban music, is heard in pop music all across the African continent, thanks to the influence of Cuban music. Those chords move in accordance with the basic tenets of Western music theory. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, performers of African popular music do not necessarily perceive these progressions in the same way: "The harmonic cycle of C-F-G-F [I-IV-V-IV] prominent in Congo/Zaire popular music simply cannot be defined as a progression from tonic to subdominant to dominant and back to subdominant (on which it ends) because in the performer's appreciation they are of equal status, and not in any hierarchical order as in Western music."[11]

The largest wave of Cuban-based music to hit Africa was in the form of salsa. In 1974 the Fania All Stars performed in Zaire (known today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Africa, at the 80,000-seat Stadu du Hai in Kinshasa. This was captured on film and released as Live In Africa (Salsa Madness in the UK). The Zairean appearance occurred at a music festival held in conjunction with the Muhammad Ali/George Foreman heavyweight title fight. Local genres were already well established by this time. Even so, salsa caught on in many African countries, especially in the Senegambia and Mali. Cuban music had been the favorite of Senegal's nightspot in the 1950s to 1960s.[12] The Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab plays in a basic salsa style with congas and timbales, but with the addition of Wolof and Mandinka instruments and lyrics.

According to Lise Waxer: "African salsa points not so much to a return of salsa to African soil (Steward 1999: 157) but to a complex process of cultural appropriation between two regions of the so-called Third World."[13] Since the mid-1990s African artists have also been very active through the super-group Africando, where African and New York musicians mix with leading African singers such as Bambino Diabate, Ricardo Lemvo, Ismael Lo and Salif Keita. It is still common today for an African artist to record a salsa tune, and add their own particular regional touch to it.

Modern Afrobeats[edit]

Iyanya during a performance

From early in the 21st century, a new type of sound, originating in Nigeria, has become increasingly prominent in African popular music.[14] This sound was initially referred to simply as 'Naija music' after the common slang term for Nigeria but has become known as Afrobeats. This name echo's Afrobeat, the 1970s fusion of jazz and traditional Nigerian music which is an important influence, but Afrobeats is a largely different style combining influences from Congolese rumba, hip hop and dancehall. Early hits included "African Queen" by 2face Idibia (2004) and "No One Like You" by P-Square (2007).[15][16]

More recently the Azonto style of dance from Ghana has become closely associated with Afrobeats and more up-tempo songs have become popular. More recent hits include "Bumper2Bumper" by Wande Coal (2008), "Oleku" by Ice Prince (2010) and "Kukere" by Iyanya (2011).

Since 2012, Afrobeats have gained mainstream recognition outside of Africa, especially within the UK. UK hits have included "Oliver Twist" by D'banj which reached 9 in the UK singles charts in 2012, and "Million Pound Girl (Badder Than Bad)" by the British artist Fuse ODG which reached 5 in the UK singles charts in 2014. Afrobeats nightclubs are now primary features of UK's nightlife with clubs opening in most major cities.[17]


Genres of African popular music include:

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "African on your street: Glossary (BBC)"
  2. ^ Love, Dave. "Miriam Makeba". JazzTimes. Retrieved 8 August 2014. 
  3. ^ D'Ambrosio, Antonio (9 January 2013). "How the Creative Response of Artists and Activists Can Transform the World". The Nation (The Nation Company, L.P.). Retrieved 9 August 2014. 
  4. ^ DeWitt, Karen (11 October 2011). "Miriam Makeba, The Accidental Activist". Retrieved 8 August 2014. 
  5. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Miriam Makeba". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 8 August 2014. 
  6. ^ Howden, Daniel (10 November 2008). "Miriam Makeba - the Empress of Africa". The Independent (London). Retrieved 8 August 2014. 
  7. ^ Nigerian musician Segun Bucknor: "Latin American music and our music is virtually the same"—quoted by Collins 1992 p. 62
  8. ^ The Encyclopedia of Africa v. 1. 2010 p. 407.
  9. ^ Roberts, John Storm. Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of Congo Music. Original Music cassette tape (1986).
  10. ^ Roberts 1986. 20: 50. Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of Congo Music.
  11. ^ Kubik 1999 p. 105. Africa and the Blues. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-145-8.
  12. ^ Stapleton 1990 116-117. African Rock: The Pop Music of a Continent. New York: Dutton.
  13. ^ Waxer 2002 p. 12. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Music. Routledge. ISBN 0-8153-4020-6
  14. ^ Guide to Nigeria's Afrobeats stars, BBC,
  15. ^ "How Nigeria's Afrobeats are redefining the sound of Africa". The Guardian. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014. 
  16. ^ Drake, David. "Say Yes: How a Michelle, Beyoncé and Kelly Gospel Record Points to Pop Music’s Nigerian Future". The Fader. Retrieved 4 August 2014. 
  17. ^