Head Revival of the Ghanaian Music: 1970s

In the beginning of the 1970s, traditionally styled high-life had been overtaken by the electric guitar bands and pop-dance music. Since the year 1976 and with the fall of President Kwame Nkrumah, many Ghanaian artists have moved abroad, settling in the United States and in the United Kingdom. High-life band appear like Sammy Kofi’s (which is also known as Sammy). In the year 1971, the Soul music festival was held in Accra. Several renowned American artists played, including Tina Turner, Carlos Santana, Wilson Pickett, and Ike. With the exception of Mexican-American Santana, these American superstars were all black, and their presence in Accra was seen as legitimizing Ghanaian music. 

source of picture: graphic.com.gh

Though the show is now mostly remembered for its role as a substance in the subsequent Ghanaian roots revival, it also led to increase of the popularity for American rock and soul. Inspired by the American artists, new guitar bands appear in Ghana which include the Nana Ampadu and the African Brothers, the City Boys and more. Artists like Daniel Amponsah, CK Mann and Eddie Donkor incorporated new elements, especially from Jamaican reggae. A group known as the Wulomei also appeared in the 1970s, leading a cultural revival to support the Ghanaian youths in their own countryman’s music. The orchestra Hi-life international was maybe the powerful band of the era, and others included Orchestra are Jazira, Ben Brako, Jon k, and Dade Krama. In the middle of the year, however, British settlement laws changed, and the point of Ghanaian settlers moved to Germany.

The Ghanaian-German community originated a form of high-life known as Burger-highlife. The most powerful early burgher highlife artists was George Darko, whose Akoo Te Brofo originated the term and is measured the beginning of the genre. Burgher highlife was very famous in Ghana, especially after the computer-generated dance beats were added to the mix. The same era saw a Ghanaian community came in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada. Pat Thomas is probably the most popular Ghanaian-Canada artist. Other emerges include Ghanaian-American Obo Addy, the Ghanaian-Swiss Addy Vans and the Ghanaian-Dutch Kumbi Salleh. In Ghana itself during the 1980s, reggae became extremely famous.