The Music, Genres and Social Relations of African Popular Art

Because Africa is such a vast continent with so many nations, and so many different cultural groups, it would be inappropriate to talk about African pop culture as a definitive entity with specific characteristics. There are some generalizations that can be made about African pop culture however, such as the fact that it has been influenced by many foreign cultural traditions including Islam and Christianity, both of which have colonized various parts of Africa and imposed Eastern and Western cultural practices upon African people. Another fairly steady influence on African pop culture is apartheid. The effects of segregation and racial discord linger among many Africans. Some Africans want to return to more indigenous forms of pop culture in terms of music, art and other genres, and others see the influences of the past as representative of the history of Africa, and, therefore, authentic. More recently, urbanization has also influenced African pop culture. That culture contrasts with the rural cultures, again demonstrating the inaccuracy of trying to pin one type of pop culture to the entire continent. One final characteristic shared by many Africans is that of a desire to be authentic and not be seen as a product of colonization. Being original is an important consideration that many Africans see as most representative of African culture and want included in their popular culture. This authenticity will help to legitimize their art, even if its outside influences are detectable, and it will help Africans to reclaim a place of power and relevance on the world stage.

When one discusses popular culture, music is almost always mentioned, and the forces that influence it are often discussed. Some African music, usually that which is made with indigenous instruments and has been for perhaps thousands of years, is considered primitive. For some Africans, that music is not at all what they would consider popular culture, but to others, tribal music is the only musical culture, or at least the only one they consider relevant. The same goes for some contemporary musical styles. Despite their clearly outside influences, many Africans consider those styles to be much closer to what some consider pop music. One example is hip-hop. After apartheid ended in South Africa, hip-hop became quite popular. This may be because some hip hop music includes references to racial relationships in other countries. Heike Becker of Research in African Literatures says hip-hop served as a way to think about black and white social negotiations in South Africa. People still searched for more authenticate ways to communicate their experience with the racist past and the new integrated society, but hip hop applied to the situation (Becker 29). Globalization was also occurring around the same time, and that had an effect on African popular music too. The HIV epidemic is another uniquely African influence on popular music found on the continent.

With the influences from Islam and Christianity also mixed in, African popular music takes many different forms. Austin Emielu of the journal, Popular Music, says, “The European legacy in Africa gave birth to Western-influenced popular music such as the West African Highlife, Congo Jazz, Kwela and Mbaganga of South Africa, Mapouka of Cote d'Ivoire, Kriolu music for the mixed population (the Mesticos) in Cape Verde, and many others” (Emielu 374). Emielu mentioned several other forms, but this quote represents a sampling of the many different genres of pop music in Africa. He also mentions that urban popular music in Africa seems to be influenced most by Western European, American and Islamic music, which is often incorporated with traditional African music (Emielu 384). By mixing these genres and influences, a new form of music is created, and it is authentically African despite the influences that are easily detected in it. Becker says, “The notion of authenticity is regularly accompanied by processes of authentication in which people have at their disposal resources and techniques that they use to realize an authentically felt grounding to the social and cultural constructions that make up their lives” (Becker 32). All art contains some level of imitation of other art, and yet critics of African pop music identify the imitation as if the new music created is not authentic because the influence is detectable.

Various processes are involved in creating popular music. Emielu says one of those processes, indigenization, is reworking or adapting foreign musical forms to represent fundamentally African cultural and aesthetic characteristics (Emielu 385). For instance, jazz was created in the United States, but has been exported to Europe where it has developed its own style. Africans also enjoy jazz a great deal and have added their own culture and aesthetic flairs to the genre. No one accuses Europeans of being inauthentic b