Music
Ghanaian music, especially drumming, has a strong tradition and is an immensely popular art form. West African artists are becoming popular around the world. In Ghana, music and dance are intimately related, and have adapted a lot through recent time, thought there’s no real “chronology” as styles and forms continuously influence each other. Here’s a very loose kind of sampler:
Kpanlogo, a neo-traditional drum and dance style, originated in Accra in the 1960′s, blends traditional music and contemporary highlife music, and is a “symbol of Ghanaian urban neighborhood youth”:
Highlife music, which began in the 20′s and is stillmade today, is certainly the most internationally known form of Ghanaian music. Musicians began to incorporate rythms like jazz, foxtrot, calypso into traditional beats:
A more contemporary version of highlife:
At the turn of the century highlife incorporated influences from American rap and hip-hop and became “hiplife”:
Christian and gospel music is hugely popular:
And some personal favorites from West Africa:
Nuru Kane (Senegal):
Habib Koite (Mali):
Angelique Kidjo (Mali; immensely popular in the West, four time Grammy nominee):
