The way electronic music entered the African scene in the 1990s, how it was developed, and how it is becoming increasingly relevant. From kuduro in Angola to gqom in South Africa.

Two factors occurred in the 1990s that created the space for the entry of electronic sounds into the African musical panorama. Since the 1980s, analogue recording studios began to close due to the collapse in vinyl sales with the boom in pirated cassettes. At the same time, digital studios and their distribution formats have not yet taken hold, and therefore in many African countries, there is a sharp decline in the production of recorded music.
In the same years, radio frequencies were liberalized in various states, and many new stations were created in many of the large capitals, heralding a new phase in which the demand for music skyrocketed, satisfied mostly by foreign music, often Western, precisely in the years where house, techno and dance genres start to go crazy. This is the context in which in 1994 the hit I Like to Move It by Reel II Real reached the airwaves of Angola, where it led to the birth of what later became the symbolic genre in the country, kuduro.

Kuduro has become the distinctive sound of Angolan youth. File swm

Young Angolans imitate the sound of the hit, which in turn recalls their local rhythms, using simple tools such as a cell phone with personalized ringtones. In the following years, small digital studios popped up all over Luanda and kuduro, with its hard and essential electronic beat, became the distinctive sound of Angolan youth.
Even in Ghana the wave of house and dance music, called asokpor, gradually absorbs local rhythms, taken mainly from the jama and kpanlogo dances and rhythms of the Ga people. In South Africa, house in its original form is a long-lived and dominant genre; still in vogue since the 1990s, it contributed to the breaking down of the barriers imposed by apartheid and gave rise to kwaito.
This slowed-down, socially conscious, take on house incorporates South African elements, particularly Zulu rhythms and hip-hop vocal styles.

An alternative sound
In the 2000s, a new, deeper form of Afrohouse emerged, with softer, more expressive singing and more delicate beats. The standard-bearer of this new trend is Black Coffee, probably the most popular African DJ in the world; he and other DJs have achieved superstar status in South Africa. However, as commercial success increases, the sound becomes economically inaccessible for new producers.
At the beginning of the 2010s, the need for alternative sounds emerged. Instead of polite rhythms and sophisticated – and expensive – vocals taken from established artists, local producers created the onomatopoeic gqom style, marked by essential, minimal, and repetitive arrangements reminiscent of Detroit techno and industrial music.

Black Coffee (left) performing with DJ Shimza. CC BY-SA 4.0/Andy Vuyo

Gqom started in South Africa, expanding across the continent and beyond, with gqom parties in many European cities. People had hardly become used to it, however, when a substitute took hold in the motherland, this time the more durable amapiano, literally ‘very piano’ in the Zulu language, which emerged in the mid-2010s. The tempo is slower than gqom or house music, the beats are softer, and the instruments have a more organic sound. Having gone further than any of its predecessors, the amapiano livens up parties in Lagos and Nairobi but also in London and Milan, and endless dance videos with amapiano music appear on TikTok, spreading its sound and culture.The sound spread to other African countries. Nigeria, musically the undisputed heavyweight champion, adopted its Afrobeat to create Afropiano.
Lubumbashi, in the DR Congo, is home to a vibrant Afrohouse and also an Amapiano scene, which began a decade ago with DJ Spilulu, and in more recent times led by DJ P2N and DJ Renaldo.
Angola remains permeable to South African house influences, with producers like Djeff touring the world.

“The growing influence of music created in Africa is a reminder of the cultural strength of a continent”123rf

In Ghana, there is no autonomous house scene, but some visionary producers work in Accra, such as Nshona Muzick, the main creator of the vogue for dance and azonto music that in 2012 spread across the country and among the diasporas.
The same economic obstacles that contributed to the birth of gqom in South Africa recently led to the birth of a new electronic genre in Nigeria: cruise, from the slang phrase catching cruise, literally ‘having a laugh’. Here too, producers replace expensive vocals with snippets of audio taken from online videos. Everyone from politicians to street vendors ends up listening to fast, stripped-down beats.
The countries mentioned all have a long tradition of adapting their musical environment to new instruments, trends, and aesthetic tastes. In other areas of the continent, electronic contaminations remain more experimental, more underground, but the musical scenes in which they develop are no less rich for that.

Rophnan Nuri Muzeyin known as Rophnan is an Ethiopian musician, singer, songwriter, DJ, and audio engineer. CC BY-SA 4.0/Cymande25th

Uganda is emblematic: in the capital Kampala, the Nyege Nyege festival and label drives electronic experimentation and creates connections between local artists and international situations. The Electrafrique nights, on the other hand, born in Nairobi and now at home in Dakar, are a lively hub for Afrohouse and other electronic styles. The Afro-futurist artist and producer Ibaaku works in Senegal; Chad is the home of Afrotronix, while in Ethiopia, Rophnan has become a star for having projected his traditional training into new and daring electronic productions. There are many more artists, and the creativity and opportunities that characterize the scene show no sign of decreasing. In an age where migrants are in the headlines and visas are denied, the growing influence of music created in Africa is a reminder of the cultural strength of a continent we too often overlook. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Benjamin Lebrave

Afrobeats, bongo, amapiano, rumba, and gengetone are genres that are now heard everywhere. Thanks to social media and the growing investments of the recording industry. The world has never heard so much African music as today.

Over the last decade, African music has risen to the forefront of the international scene. Out of all of these, it was Afrobeats, the genre born in Nigeria, that showed the way, with artists like Burna Boy increasingly achieving sell-outs, climbing the charts, and winning awards. However, the music of the continent has much to offer beyond Afrobeats.
There are several genres that are increasingly capturing the interest of the global public: the amapiano from South Africa, the bongo from Tanzania, the rumba from the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the gengetone from Kenya, but also the African declinations of genres such as R&B and drill music. It is safe to say that African music is entering
its ‘golden age’.

Divine Ikubor, known professionally as Rema. On 26 October 2023, Rema released a 5-title EP named Ravage. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Thealfe Studios

In 2023, for example, the Afrobeats category was included in the MTV Video Music Awards for the first time. Taking a look at the artists nominated for the statuette allows you to get a precise idea of the exploits this style has recently performed. Virtually impossible to escape, anywhere in the world, is Rema’s Calm Down, as well as her remix with Selena Gomez.
The two versions of the song have totalled 1.1 billion views on YouTube. Davido’s Unavailable is the lead single from Timeless, the Nigerian artist’s fourth studio album, and the first album by an African songwriter to reach number one on the US iTunes chart. Then there is Burna Boy, with his hit It’s Plenty. The Nigerian singer’s seventh LP, I Told Them, reached number one in the English charts: just the latest in an endless series of recognitions. Moving forward we find Bandana, by Rema and Fireboy DML, one of the anthems of the year 2023, and then People, another great success of the same year, by Cameroonian Libianca.

TikTok
How did this explosion arise? Several factors have contributed to the enormous increase in the global consumption of African music. Above all, the internet and social media, have given a decisive boost to the international public’s access to the music of the continent. YouTube, and more recently TikTok, have played a crucial role in taking African music to a new level. YouTube has made many listeners discover African
songs for the first time.

Selena Marie Gomez, singer, actress, businesswoman and producer at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. CC BY-SA 4.0/Vmas

And, in recent years, TikTok has been a launching pad for the careers of quite a few artists. With short-form dance videos dominating the social media platform, their songs have provided the perfect soundtrack for millions of people
around the world.
The platform’s data reveals that Rema’s Calm Down has been used in 1.8 million videos; Ruger’s Girlfriend in 1.5 million. “For listeners, TikTok is now one of the main tools for discovering new music”, emphasises Emmanuel Okiri, strategist of the music and entertainment platform Loud.co.ke. based in Nairobi: “When developing strategies to launch their songs, many African artists focus on the most effective ways on the platforms, such as viral challenges and collaborations with influencers”.

Major and local labels
Not only ordinary fans have become enthusiastic about African music. Reading the current trends, major record companies have started investing in artists from the continent like never before. Over the past six years, Universal Music Group, Sony, and Warner, the three major labels that alone control around 69% of the world’s record market, have all added African talent to their stables.
The biggest names in African music, such as Rema, Davido, Burna Boy, and Wizkid, have all signed contracts with major labels. The latter are also entering into partnership agreements with local labels, thus creating a channel that can bring emerging African talent to the global spotlight. Of course, the revenue generated by African music has also grown.

Afrobeats star Burna Boy performing at Nativeland Concert, Lagos, Nigeria. CC BY-SA 4.0/Catherine Omeresan Sutherland.

According to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), artists in sub-Saharan Africa produced $70.1 million in revenues from recorded music in 2021, an increase of 9.6% year-on-year. Today, the main revenue sources for African musicians are live performances and streaming. For the more successful ones, brand partnerships are also proving profitable.
Between August 2021 and August 2022 Apple Music recorded a 500% increase in streaming from African DJs. Also in 2021, Spotify decided to expand to reach 39 African countries, in order to tap into the vibrant musical genres that are redefining the continental scene. Research by the Dataxis centre estimates that annual revenues from African music streaming will increase in 2026 to 314.6 million dollars, from 92.9 million in 2021. Unlike the IFPI data, which only takes sub-Saharan Africa into consideration, Dataxis considers the entire continent including North African markets.

Royalties
However, several factors could hinder the expansion and development of the great financial potential of African music. First is the low network penetration rate recorded on the continent. In its research, Dataxis estimates that this will represent the first limit to the growth of the sector, underlining that ‘streaming cannot go faster than infrastructure’. Improving this aspect can therefore act as a driving force for the entire sector. In the growth of African music consumption, the transnational diffusion of various genres on the continent has played a central role, and Nigerian Afrobeats, for example, is very popular in Kenya, as confirmed by the data on streaming listeners – unlike Kenya which is one of the African countries where the diffusion of the network is more widespread. Observes Okiri: “If we could improve internet access on the continent, the impact would also be felt in all creative sectors, not just music. The benefits for cinema or video games, both of which use music in various ways, could be significant”.

“If we could improve internet access on the continent, the impact would also be felt in all creative sectors, not just music.” 123rf.com

The growth of the African music industry is also being held back by the limited support for artists in some of the continent’s biggest markets. Musicians lose millions in royalties due to inaccurate collection systems, mismanagement, and lack of accurate data. A forensic audit of organizations in Kenya responsible for collecting and distributing royalties to artists has revealed that between 2020 and 2022, musicians did not receive the $1.07 million they were owed. Although the organizations collected licensing fees from the various businesses that used the music, the money never reached the artists, who often found themselves in poverty. Investments and policies that increase internet access in Africa and ensure fair wages for artists should therefore be priorities for African governments. Only in this way will music and entertainment become pillars of African economies, generating thousands of jobs and valorising a large number of artists. (Open Photo:123rf)

Martin Siele

A collective runs a cultural centre and a record company in Ségou, an unstable area of Mali. To keep the art scene alive and because ‘music and the desire to live cannot be stopped’.

Now with eight titles, available digitally, The Lost Maestros is a series from the Malian label Mieruba intended to enhance the heritage of the golden, post-independence years of Malian music.
Mieruba also releases physical albums and new material, such as the recent Diré by veteran Idrissa Soumaoro.
Mieruba is part of the activities of the Mieruba Art Center, created in 2008 in Ségou, a stone’s throw from the Niger River. Over 300 kilometres north-east of the capital Bamako, Ségou, once the capital of the Bambara Empire, today the capital of the region of the same name, is located in an unsafe area due to the activities of jihadist groups. The centre is animated by a collective that replied to us via email.

“Music is like cotton or gold: a raw material that is extracted in Mali”. Photo: Mieruba Art Centre

Malian music continues to have strong visibility internationally through world music labels. Why then the initiative of a label?
One of the reasons is the need to relocate part of the music industry in the country. Music is like cotton or gold: a raw material that is extracted in Mali. This does not mean that it is not transformed and valorised by foreign labels driven by sincere respect for Malian culture, but the time has come to ‘decolonize’ world music. It needs to be done for the good of Malian music and there is immense work to be done for the rights of musicians. The vast majority do not perceive any rights for what they have created. Beyond the big names who give prestige to Malian culture in the world thanks to foreign labels, there are many extraordinary musicians who live in absolute precariousness. We have to start from here and it’s not easy because we have to consider all the works that have been in circulation in the world for more than fifty years.
This implies a general rethinking of world music, which at the moment is based on a ‘Western’ functioning that does not exactly reflect the reality of the local culture.

 How did the cultural centre come about?
The project of the centre and the label were born together because they feed off each other: The Lost Maestros series is the foundation of all of Mieruba. Mangala Camara, who returned to Mali after twenty years of precarious employment in France, gave the first impulse – as well as Askia Modibo, returning from France where he had not found the space to express himself. He therefore felt the need for a local reality that could give voice and pay respect to artists who marked the golden era in which the fusion of tradition and modernity was experimented, and who have much to pass on to the new generation.

“The Lost Maestros series is the foundation of all of Mieruba”. Photo: Mieruba Art Centre

The situation of the region is not an easy one…
The initial idea was that of a meeting place between these great artists, the new generation and foreign artists. Before the war, many stars came to Mali (Bono, Damon Albarn, Robert Plant…) to ‘learn’ something. The hypothesis was to live on the fruit of these meetings, also on an economic level. Then the worsening of security conditions made the project unfeasible in the terms imagined. But despite the difficulties it was not possible to stop, due to the energy already spent and because Mieruba was becoming a point of reference, and the failure of the project would be a loss for the community of Ségou and for the Malian art scene. In a moment of general crisis, there is more reason than ever to spread music, and to do so from Ségou, a city at the crossroads between
north and south.

What projects are you running?
To have an international outlet we started a collaboration with a French vinyl pressing company and its label Deviation Records. With them, we published the first volume of the anthology The Lost Maestros and the first of the collection of songs by the legendary Super Biton de Ségou orchestra. We plan to publish the second volume of both of these. However, we have also started to distribute independently in digital and physical formats. In 2022, Mieruba received its first economic contribution from the AWA fund financed by the European Union and managed by the Fondation sur le Niger – considered an important reality for Ségou and all of Mali, which deals with culture and organizes the Festival sur le Niger, that every year fills the city with joy.

“Mieruba wants to become a reference first and foremost for local artists, to perform but also to get to know each other and rehearse”. Photo: Mieruba Art Centre

There are no longer many foreign tourists, but the festival is aimed primarily at the inhabitants and is an example of how, despite all the difficulties, music, and the desire to live, cannot be stopped.
Mieruba wants to become a reference first and foremost for local artists, to perform but also to get to know each other and rehearse.
We are completing a space dedicated to live performances and last September, as part of the Pacific Fusion #2 project, we had young musicians of varied origins in residence who, under the guidance of two members of Super Biton, worked to fuse different traditions in the name of peace and diversity.

What is happening in the music scene in the city?
There were once concerts in all the maquis (informal venues, ed.) of the city, but few survive, like the historic Mobaso. Painfully, some musicians moved to Bamako, but many are still here and okra – the music at weddings – remains a source of income. As throughout Mali, the new generation is also interested in rap, and small recording studios are widespread in the city; however, these energies are dispersed, and the necessary framework to achieve the quality they can easily aspire to, is often lacking. Despite everything, there is perhaps no better place in the world to continue the project and the dream of a cultural centre from which music can radiate. Music is Mali’s wealth and its weapon
for peace and prosperity.

Marcello Lorrai

For some years now, the Nigerian and Ghanaian Afrobeats music scene has taken on global dimensions in terms of reach, acceptance
and impact.

Increasingly, the yardstick for measuring the success of an Afrobeats artist is the level of international success he or she enjoys. It means not only collaborating with leading music superstars from around the world but also filling prestigious arenas in metropolises such as London, Amsterdam, Paris, and New York. This also involves recording, distribution and sponsorship deals with the largest companies involved in the music and entertainment business.
The speed with which Afrobeats stars churned out their hits was astonishing. For a while, it might have seemed that this scene would soon peter out and eventually give way to other interesting genres such as amapiano, the subgenre of house music born in South Africa, which fuses different styles such as R&B, kwaito, soul, gospel, and indeed house. In reality, Afrobeats musicians have simply incorporated amapiano as part of their ever-growing repertoire.
This demonstrates not only the versatility of the artists but also the resilience of this genre of music.

Tiwa Savage performing at the Mavin Industry “Nite” Concert in Nigeria. CC BY-SA 3.0/TCD

The first wave of great Afrobeats artists includes P-Square, D’banj, Flavor, Timaya, and Tuface. Those were followed by the likes of Wizkid, Olamide, Sarkodie (Ghana), and Davido. And then it was the turn of Burna Boy, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Patoranking, Simi, and Mr Eazi.
While many of these artists have achieved viral successes, some of which have had a global impact like Alade’s Johnny, the latest generation of Afrobeats stars has brought even greater depth to the genre. Among the hottest artists are C-Kay, Rema, Fireboy DML, Ayra Starr, Ruger, Joeboy, and Asake. All of them are touring all over Africa, as well as shooting their elaborately plotted music videos in exotic locations abroad. Asake, in particular, not only does successful tours in the US and UK, but shoots his intricate videos – made mostly by the ubiquitous TG Omori
– almost exclusively in the US. Last August he held major shows
at the O2 Arena in London.

Tems, the voice
On the other hand, Tems’ rise as a current Afrobeats star has been nothing short of meteoric. When the smoky-voiced Nigerian singer and her compatriot Rema were announced as part of the line-up for the August 2023 edition of Lollapalooza, their already notable international profile was cemented even further. Furthermore, Tems, who has already won two BET Awards, was nominated in three different categories for the 2023 edition of the BET Awards in the United States. Tems is something of an enigma: shy, reserved, and sexy. Nigerian Afrobeats superstar Wizkid launched it globally with his 2020 hit Essence, an R&B-influenced track that wowed audiences across multiple continents. The hit was even remixed to include Justin Bieber.
The 28-year-old Tems creates a pleasant Sade-style atmosphere (very successful Anglo-Nigerian singer in the 1980s, ed.), but also more captivating than the latter.The speed with which she has won the favour of the American public is unprecedented for Nigerian singers, which include artists of the calibre of Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Simi, and younger aspirants such as Ayra Starr, Fave, etc. On stage Savage, Alade, and Starr are exuberant performers.

Temilade Openiyi, known professionally as Tems. CC BY-SA 4.0/NdaniTV

Tems, on the other hand, seems to have a strength within her that releases in songs of emotional intensity, desire, and adventure. Rather than express herself in an ecstasy of dance and raw theatricality, she reserves acrobatics for the deep, soothing flourishes she undertakes with her extraordinary voice. In 2020, she released her first EP, For Broken Ears, which made her mark on the Nigerian music scene. The 2021 song If Orange Was a Place had an even stronger impact, which reverberated beyond Nigerian shores.
She has collaborated with heavy hitters in the American music industry like Khalid, Brent Faiyaz, Drake, and Future; so far, these overseas releases have been lucky. This doesn’t usually happen to African artists who, hoping to achieve big results, venture into the American music market. In most cases, in an effort to conquer new audiences, they seem to lose themselves and their creative spirit, in a game similar to Russian roulette. Many seek their fortune in America full of illusions and expectations. Of course, they also have to meet the changing demands of record labels and their managers. Divergent and often competing interests can drag artists down into a lack of success and even total failure. And once they return to Africa it may happen that they are no longer able to recover their audience, which in the meantime has followed new trends.

In the United States
Elaine, for example, the sensual South African R&B singer, left for the United States and returned without having a great artistic streak anymore. She has now embraced the amapiano, thus hoping to reconnect with her home audience. Several years ago, Nigerian megastars Davido and Wizkid also flew to the United States.
In particular, Davido came out with several pieces designed for the US market, which did well in Africa but did not achieve the desired results across the Atlantic.
In 2017, however, Davido hit the mark in the USA, as well as in Canada and France, with the hit Fall, a song that didn’t seem to promise much. It almost seems that Afrobeats, now one of the main ingredients in the programming of many Western radios, however, needs to be adapted to find wider acceptance outside Africa. In reality, numerous niche spaces have been created for Afrobeats as has happened for reggae. However, as long as the genre retains the mould and character of tropical Africa, it will lag behind Western pop music.

Davido in concert. CC BY-SA 4.0/Peter Verwimp

This in itself is not worrying. In fact, the biggest African stars, Davido, Burna Boy, Diamond Platinumz (Tanzania), Flavour, Rayvanny (Tanzania), Harmonize (Tanzania), Fally Ipupa (RD Congo), Sarkodie, Ferre Gola (RDC), Stonebwoy (Ghana), Shatta Wale (Ghana), and Wizkid have established themselves on the continent, in Europe, in South America, and the Caribbean – markets that are more than sufficient today for those who intend to build a lasting career. In Found, her song featuring Brent Faiyaz, Tems describes the inner turmoil between her and her lover, as they seek a solution to their differences. With her remarkable performance, Tems proved that she is capable of not selling herself short when she wants to engage with American listeners. However, she is not always like this. She has, among other things, composed a song for Rihanna and collaborated with Beyoncé and Grace Jones. Additionally, her performances and compositions have won numerous prestigious awards in the United States. In any case, the international musical scenario that many African artists have to deal with is certainly not easy. However, it will be interesting to see how Tems manages the challenge of an international career. What is certain is that there will always be new Afrobeats talents with fresh ideas, ready to take up the baton. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Sanya Osha