Afrobeat Music of Nigeria

Afrobeat is pattern very closely related with Nigeria, however practitioners and supporters are found all over West Africa and Afrobeat recordings are renowned part of the world music group found all over the established world. It is a combination of American funk music with elements of highlife, jazz and other patterns of West African music. The very renowned and famous artist, indeed the very popular Nigerian artist in history is undoubtedly Fela Kuti.

source of picture: nigerianmusicblog.blogspot.com

Fela Kuti started performing in the year 1961, but did not begin in his unique Afrobeat pattern until his contract to Sierra Leonean afro-soul singer Geraldo Pino in the year 1963. Though Kuti is frequently recognized as the only inventor of Afrobeat, other artists such as Orland Julius Ekemode were also renowned in the early Afrobeat scene, where they mixed highlife, funk and jazz. A brief time in the United States saw him contract to the Black Power trend and the Black Panthers, an influence that he would come to express in his lyrics.

After he has left London, he went back to Lagos and opened a club known as Shrine, which was one of the most renowned music points in the city. He began recording with African 70, a big ensemble featuring drummer Tony Allen, who has since gone on to become a popular artists in his own time. In African 70, Kuti released a number of hits, earning the annoyance of the government as he tackled such different problems as poverty, traffic and skin-and massive local demonstrations. Upon release, Kuti continued to condemn the government in his songs, and became popular for eccentric character such as suddenly divorcing all twenty-eight wives because on man has the right to own a woman’s vagina.  His death through AIDS in 1997 sparked a time of national mourning that was exceptional in record of Nigerian history.

Kuti was jailed in 1985 for five years, but was later released after only he spent two years after international outcry and massive local demonstrations.

In 1980s, Afrobeat became associated with the burgeoning genre of world music. In Europe and North America, it is known as world music acts which originated from the world and played in a multitude of patterns. Fela Kuti and his Afrobeat supporters were among the most popular of the artists considered world music.

At the end of the 80s and early 90s, Afrobeat had classified by taking in modern influences from jazz and rock and roll. The ever-masked and mysterious Lagbaja became one of the standard-bearers of the modern wave of Afrobeat, especially after his 1996 LP C’est Une African Thing. Following a surprise emergence in the place of his father, Fela, Femi Kuti gathered a huge support base that enables him to travel through Europe.