User:Michael Anim Safo/sandbox

Ghanaian Music
Music is the mix of vocals and instruments that creates beauty and harmony while also expressing emotions. There are a number of musical genres throughout the world, spanning jazz, rock, pop, folk, classical, blues, hip-hop, highlife, and afrobeat music.

Ghanaians are well-known around the world for their love of music and dance. A simple look at a Ghanaian reveals that they cannot live a second without music. They have generated a great deal of interest since their inception. Every Ghanaian parent is expected to put their children to bed by singing them a lullaby. As a result, they are exposed to musical melodies and harmony as early as toddlerhood. As a result, they develop a passion of music.

Ghana has a rich musical history that reflects the vibrant and diverse culture and traditions of its people. Ghana's music may be traced back hundreds of years, when various African music sounds and styles were combined, but highlife was Ghana's first defined type of music. Since the early 1940s, when real highlife music emerged, music in the West African sub-region has changed dramatically. I would like to expose you to some Ghanaian musical genre that has acquired prominence in Ghanaian modern music.

High Life
Highlife is a West African popular music and dance that began in Ghana in the late nineteenth century, expanded to western Nigeria, and thrived in both nations by the 1950s. Brass bands along Ghana's coast were the primary performers of the earliest highlife music. By the early twentieth century, these bands had expanded their instrumentation (mainly of European origin), added a vocal component, and included stylistic aspects from both native music traditions and jazz. Highlife thus arose as a distinct fusion of African, African American, and European musical styles.

Hip-life
Hip-life is a music genre that originated in Ghana, West Africa, by merging two separate music genres: highlife and hip-hop music (rap music). The beginnings of this genre are shrouded in mystery. Reggie Rockstone, a famed rapper and entrepreneur, is usually credited with coining the name.

Afro beat
Afrobeat predecessors emerged in Ghana in the early 1920s. During that period, Ghanaian musicians combined foreign influences such as the foxtrot and calypso with indigenous rhythms such as Highlife. Highlife was connected with African nobility and was performed by a variety of bands, including the Jazz Kings, Cape Coast Sugar Babies, and the Accra Orchestra. Notable Afrobeat Pioneers include: Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, The Lijadu Sisters, Hugh Masekela. Reggie Rockstone coined the term Hip-Life in the mid-1990s in Accra, Ghana, as a means of communicating his attempts to incorporate rap into indigenous music genres in a way that would garner widespread acceptability. In retrospect, one could argue that he has been effective in that aspect.