Explore Afrobeat on Josplay Music Afrobeat draws stylistic influences from Jazz and Highlife genres. However, its most distinguishing style is a military band marching form expressed by a unique brass section. The military band marching style also contributes to the sharpness of Afrobeat's timbre.
Afrobeat was created by Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in 1963. The genre will not become popular until his recordings in the 1970s when Afrobeat became popular in Nigeria and the rest of the world. By the ‘80s, his genre became well established, and he became revered for his musical ingenuity and political activism. Afrobeat is primarily rooted in Highlife, synthesized with African American musical forms like funk (particularly that of James Brown) and Jazz.
Afrobeat roots itself in West African rhythm and melody, including African verbal element, primarily Yoruba praise. It is drawn from Yoruba traditional chants and West African groove. According to Made Kuti; 'Afrobeat is funk in the most cultural way.'
Afrobeat began with highlife, created in Ghana by combining West African regional music with Western Jazz and calypso.
Fela Aníkúlápó-Kuti began his career playing in Highlife and Jazz band Koola Lobitos (which later became the Afrika 70s band in 1970). Initially struggling with his jazz career, Fela experimented by blending highlife, jazz, and traditional African music, coining the term "Afrobeat" in 1968. He started incorporating other sounds like Soul, Jazz, Soca, Funk, and R&B during various tours of America and the United Kingdom. In his band, he led mostly on the saxophone, keyboards, and other instruments.
Fela went on to start his band, Nigeria 70 (later Africa 70), debuting Afrobeat in the early 1970s. He established the Afrobeat sound in his debut album. The album mixes Jazz and Highlife music with the epic Funk of James Brown. His creation also incorporated some elements of Reggae, Caribbean rhythm, and Psychedelic Rock.
Fela sang in Pidgin English which was the most commonly used language by the Nigerian working class and the lower class. He also sang in English and his native language Yoruba.
Fela Kuti's Afrobeat was heavily influenced by his time with Black rights activist Sandra Izsadore. Sandra, Fela's girlfriend in California at the time, introduced him to the Black Panther Movement and figures like Malcolm X, which shaped his political consciousness. A trip to the U.S. in 1969 further deepened his engagement with Black Panther activism, leading to a new creative and ideological direction. Fela remained relevant until he died in 1997. His son, Seun, renamed the band Egypt 80 and continued in his father's footsteps. Fela's first son, Femi Kuti, also continued the Afrobeat legacy.
Afrobeat is traditionally performed in the call and response singing style used in much of African folklore. The lead singer, until recently only male, usually sings a line, and backup singers, usually female singers, respond in non-harmonious choruses.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the creator of Afrobeat, was a social and political activist. He expressed his activism through music, and the activism theme characterizes Afrobeat to date.
Afrobeat was shaped by the activism culture that was prevalent in Kalakuta Republic - a nomenclature Fela used to describe the geographical boundaries that enclosed his shrine in Ikeja, Lagos. Afrobeat was also shaped by the contemporary Yoruba and urban Lagos lifestyles. Beyond the music, Afrobeat is a movement.
Dark and sharp timbre is common in the Afrobeat genre. Rounded tonality, though rare, can be found in recent recordings.
Most scholars disagree on a concrete pattern description for Afrobeat's musical arrangement. Admittedly, Afrobeat uses a complex system of the interplay between key instruments with less attention to established rhythmic patterns and signatures. The core rhythmic arrangements of Afrobeat music are; the shekere which usually goes at 12,3,6 and 9 in a clock setting, the clave/rim which goes at two beats per second and is represented in a clock pattern as 12,1,3,4,6,7,9,10. It also features repetitive bass chords, piano, drum patterns and horns. One can also find an arrangement where the horns and the backup singers engage in the call and response technique as seen in Fela's track 'Shuffering and Smiling.'