Music of Ghana

Music of West Africa
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The Ashanti yam festival, early 19th century

Ghana has many styles of traditional and modern music, due to its multiplicity of ethnic groups and its cosmopolitan geographic position in West Africa. The best known modern genre that originated in Ghana is Highlife.

Traditional music

Further information: Sub-Saharan African music traditions

Ghana is home to numerous ethnic groups that can broadly be divided into northern and southern. The northern region lies in the sparsely vegetated Sudan and Sahel grassland belts. Due to ethnic migrations in the time of the Songhai Empire and Mossi Kingdoms and the indigenous Dagomba, and Mamprussi states, northern music styles may be included, along with Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, northern Nigeria and Niger), in a larger Sahelian category. Peoples of this region base musical composition on a line of melody, a voice, stringed, wind, thought there is polyrhythmic composition with a variety of drums, xylophones and bells. As with other Gur and Mande groups in West Africa, a long history of griot praise-singing traditions exists among the various groups in Northern Ghana. Music in the northern styles are mostly set to a minor pentatonic scale, and melisma plays an important part in both melodic and singing styles. Two main areas can be identified under the northern category:

The fertile, forested southern coastal region is inhabited by ethnic groups speaking Kwa and Gbe languages who were isolated from the Sudanic influences that dominated the north. Their music is in the Niger-Congo tradition, associated with social or spiritual function and relies on complex polyrhythmic patterns played by drums and bells as well as a harmonized song. An exception to this rule is the Akan tradition of praise-singing with the Seperewa harp-lute, a now dying genre which had its origins in historic influence from the griot traditions of the Mande empires to the north-west.

==Popular Music==The Fante's celebrate Fetu

Colonial period

During the colonial era, Africa's Gold Coast was a hotbed of musical syncretism. Rhythms from across West Africa, especially gombe and ashiko from Sierra Leone, Liberian guitar-styles like dagomba, mainline and fireman, Fante osibisaba, European brass bands and sea shanties and Christian music, were all combined into a melting pot that became highlife.

Early split: guitar-bands and dance highlife

Mid-20th century and the invention of Ghanaian pop

While pan-Ghanaian music had been developed for some time, the middle of the 20th century saw the development of distinctly Ghanaian pop music. Highlife incorporated elements of swing, jazz, rock, ska and soukous, and saw its first inroads into the culture of its neighbours in West Africa and across the rest of the continent. To a much lesser extent, Ghanaian musicians found success in the United States and, briefly, the United Kingdom with the surprise success of Osibisa's Afro-rock in the 1970s.

Guitar-bands in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s

In the 1930s, Sam's Trio, led by Jacob Sam, was the most influential of the highlife guitar-bands. Their "Yaa Amponsah", three versions of which were recorded in 1928 for Zonophone, was a major hit that remains a popular staple of numerous highlife bands. The next major guitar-band leader was E. K. Nyame, who led the Akan Trio and sang in Twi. Nyame also added the double bass and more elements of the Western hemisphere, including jazz and Cuban music. In the 1960s, dance highlife was more popular than guitar-band highlife; most of the guitar bands began using the electric guitar until a roots revival in the mid-1970s.

Dance highlife in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s

Dance highlife evolved during World War II, when American jazz and swing became popular with the arrival of servicemen from the United States and United Kingdom. After independence in 1957, the socialist government began encouraging folk music, but highlife remained popular and influences from Trinidadian and Congolese music. E. T. Mensah was the most influential musician of this period, and his band The Tempos frequently accompanied the president. The original bandleader of The Tempos was Guy Warren, who was responsible for introducing Caribbean music to Ghana and, later, was known for a series of innovative fusions of African rhythms and American jazz. King Bruce, Jerry Hansen and Stan Plange also led influential dance bands during the 1950s and 60s. By the 1970s, however, pop music from Europe and the US dominated the Ghanaian scene until a mid-1970s roots revival.

1970s: Head revival

By the beginning of the 1970s, traditionally styled highlife had been overtaken by electric guitar bands and pop-dance music. Since 1966 and the fall of President Kwame Nkrumah, many Ghanaian musicians moved abroad, settling in the US, UK and Nigeria. Highlife bands like Okukuseku recorded in Lagos or Nigeria's eastern Igbo region. In 1971, the Soul to Soul music festival was held in Accra. Several legendary American musicians played, including Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner and Carlos Santana. With the exception of Mexican-American Santana, these American superstars were all black, and their presence in Accra was seen as legitimizing Ghanaian music. Though the concert is now mostly remembered for its role as a catalyst in the subsequent Ghanaian roots revival, it also led to increased popularity for American rock and soul. Inspired by the American musicians, new guitar bands arose in Ghana, including the Ashanti Brothers, Nana Ampadu & the African Brothers, The City Boys and more. Musicians such as CK Mann, Daniel Amponsah and Eddie Donkor incorporated new elements, especially from Jamaican reggae. A group called Wulomei also arose in the 1970s, leading a Ga cultural revival to encourage Ghanaian youths to support their own countrymen's music. By the 1980s, the UK was experiencing a boom in African music as Ghanaians and others moved there in large numbers. The group Hi-Life International was probably the most influential band of the period, and others included Jon K, Dade Krama, Orchestra Jazira and Ben Brako. In the middle of the decade, however, British immigration laws changed, and the focus of Ghanaian emigration moved to Germany.

The Ghanaian-German community created a form of highlife called Burger-highlife. The most influential early burgher highlife musician was George Darko, whose "Akoo Te Brofo" coined the term and is considered the beginning of the genre. Burgher highlife was extremely popular in Ghana, especially after computer-generated dance beats were added to the mix. The same period saw a Ghanaian community appear in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada. Pat Thomas is probably the most famous Ghanaian-Canadian musician. Other emigres include Ghanaian-American Obo Addy, the Ghanaian-Swiss Andy Vans and the Ghanaian-Dutch Kumbi Salleh. In Ghana itself during the 1980s, gospel and reggae became extremely popular. The Genesis Gospel Singers were the most widely-known gospel band.

Hiplife

By the late 1990s, a new generation of artists discovered the so called hiplife. The originator of this style is Reggie Rockstone, a Ghanaian musician who dabbled with hip-hop in the United States before finding his unique style. Hiplife basically was hip hop in the Ghanaian local dialect backed by elements of the traditional Highlife. It was dominated by the Akans until Ace music producer Hammer of The Last Two unveiled artistes like Tinny and Ayigbe Edem who popularized the Ga and Ewe languages respectively. Hiplife has since proliferated and spawned stars such as Reggie Rockstone, Obrafour, Akyeame, Tic Tac, Lord Kenya, Kwaw Kese, Obour, Tinny, Ayigbe Edem, Asem, Samini and Sarkodie. Producers responsible for steering this genre to what it is today were Zapp Mallet, Jay Q, Panji Anoff, Hammer of The Last Two, Morris Da' voice, Richie Mensah, Appietus and Killbeatz.^[1][2]

Ghanaian charts

The official Ghanain charts were started in 1990, it's first number 1 single was "Oh Lord (Please Help Me)" by No Man's Land. The first number one album was Where Have All the Lovers Gone by The Orlans. The current number 1 is "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. The current number 1 album is Universal Dance Machine by Rowen & the Boiz.

See also: Ghanaian hip hop

References

1. ^ http://livingthehiplife.haverford.edu/
2. ^ http://www.ghanamusic.com/modules/soapbox/article.php?articleID=38

External links

• AllGhanaMusic.com Ghana Music News, Latest Ghana Music Videos, Photos, Reviews, Lyrics, User Profiles, Chat Room
• Ghana Music.com Ghana Music News, Latest Music Videos, Photos, Reviews, Lyrics
• GhanaMotion.Com Latest Ghana Music Audio, Videos, Lyrics, Mixtapes and more
• Latest Ghana Music Videos
• BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Koo Nimo and King Ayisoba. Accessed November 25, 2010.
• BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Serena Owusua Dankwa and Batman Samini. Accessed November 25, 2010.
• Ghana music lyrics, audio, blogs, more Museke Ghana.
• Ghana Base Music Powering the Ghanaian Music Online.
• Ghana Music Online.com Ghana Music News, Latest Music Videos, Photos, etc
• Ghana Music.co.uk Latest Music Videos, Photos,
• Most Popular Site for Ghana's Entertainment
• Music in Ghana Music in Ghana.
• Traditional Ghanaian music group Hayor Bibimma
• Ghana Music videos on ZedClips.