Afrobeat- A New Direction for the Music Industry

Afrobeat has unique rhythms and melodies that have influenced multitudes of contemporary acts worldwide. With its mesmerizing blend of West African and Black American music.

More so, its primary style combines West African styles such as Yoruba music, high life, funk, jazz, and soul. Influenced by American music, with chanting vocals, complex rhythms, and percussion by Afrobeat. Afrobeat- A New Direction for the Music Industry.

Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti is responsible for popularizing the style inside and outside Nigeria in the 1960s.

In addition, there is another sound, Afrobeats. Which originates in West Africa in the 21st Century and is a mix of hip hop, house, ndombolo, R&B, and soca. However, they are different genres, despite their frequent confusion.

• Nigerian musician Fela Aníkúlápó-Kuti, who began his career playing in an array of African highlife and jazz bands, toured America and the United Kingdom. They absorbed soul, jazz, soca, and rhythm and blues sounds. 
• Furthermore, he unleashed this formidable creation in his band, Nigeria 70 (later Africa 70). Debuting his unique new musical style in the early 1970s.
• Kuti’s closest follower was drummer Tony Allen. Who expanded on the Afrobeat sound with elements of hip-hop, dub, and electronica to create Afrofunk, a new subgenre. 
• Through collaborations with Air, Zap Mama, and Damon Albarn of Blur, Allen gained a wider audience than his former bandleader.
• Afrobeat’s foundation was laid by Fela Kuti and Allen, but jazz musicians like Roy Ayers also recorded Afrobeat-inspired music in the 1970s. Ayers toured Nigeria with the elder Kuti in the late ’70s. 
• Moreover, contemporary artists like Antibalas and Zongo Junction—both hailing from Brooklyn, New York— have carved careers out of the Afrobeat sound. 
• In addition, mainstream rock and soul bands, like TV on the Radio and the Budos Band, have also recorded songs with an Afrobeat flavor.