Cool Stuff: African Music
In the material we dwelled into before going to Western and South African music, the country of Ghana stuck heavily with me for reasons I'll dive into soon. To study the country of Ghana, some information that is important is to know that Ghana is one of the leading countries of Africa. According to Britannica, this is mainly because of its natural wealth and by it being the fist African country south of the Sahara to achieve independence from colonial rule.
With that being said, any African Americans are going back to the homeland of Ghana to actually lay roots. In a video we watched in some before material called Black Americans Explore African Roots in Ghana from NBC News, African Americas are introducing themselves to Ghana. With any culture functioning as its own, there are certain stereotypes that follow Africa as a whole and that is being poor. Young people like Deija Gordon, who was referenced in the video, go to see for themselves at a young age what they can accomplish in Ghana. She owns her own food truck which introduces blends of New York style food with Jamaican and Ghanaian style.
Her message that stuck with me basically said that once you get in touch with your roots and find self identity through that, there is nothing that can stop you. I would encourage everyone who reads this to look back at that video because there are many highlights of Ghana and what it means to have identity
and pride.
According to a YouTube video called Exploring Ghana's Diverse Culture, Ghana is home to about 24 million different people all composed of various ethnicities. Music, as in every tradition, are distinct and important to Ghanaian culture. The main popular music style is called highlife. Doing some more research on African Music Safari, highlife music originates from Gold Coast colonial days and mixes various West African rhythms with jazz, swing, ska, rock and soukous. The new generation has transformed this style into its own taste called hiplife. Both young and old enjoy the traditional and new age stylings that come from high life music.
Traditional
New Generation
Something that I found interesting that we have not mentioned in other cultures was an instrument called the Gyil. It is a type of xylophone that is commonly played with a kuor which is a type of drum. It is cool because we have never came across an instrument so big in size and not really easy to transport. It is made from 14 wooden slats that are suspended on a frame over calabash gourds. It sounds like the Western marimba, yet more earthy in person. In the video, a man talks over the man playing the Gyil. He basically introduces the instrument and tells a few tidbits.
I like how you added different songs. I also liked how you spoke about their culture and that you enjoyed it so much.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Yes, I remember the video you speak of. The highlife and hiplife music sound different and the xylophone is very cool. You did a great job on this blog and I applaud you for choosing Ghana. Thanks for the cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteHi Quiana! I've never listened to highlife music but I love this video! It was very soothing to listen to and I could hear the different mixtures of music as well. I think I like the traditional style a bit more. Also, I love the rhythm that was created by the Gyil in the last video.
ReplyDeleteQuiana, after seeing your comment I decided to read your blog to compare both highlife music and new wave music. You're right! they do sound familiar! Maybe its because of the language barrier, but doesn't it almost seem like the lyrics are sort of comical in this type of music? For me, it seems like the main focus is what's happening with the style of music.. Overall, I loved your blog, very informative!
ReplyDeleteThat first video has a lot of great information. Something that I really liked that she stated was how everything you ever see or hear about Africa is all the negative third world country propaganda. Though they have their poverties, Africa is self is and has so much more than that. I love how you added a side by side comparison of how the music has changed through the generations. I also really liked the Gyil. I love seeing as how people are taking an interest in their history and wanting to learn about it.
ReplyDelete