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What Is African Music?

African mixtapes


Music makes true sense in Africa.
African music is something very much integrated with pleasure, humanity, and religiousness in Africa. African music has a history of centuries-old mixed with African traditions, Moroccan Disco Tapes, and the collection of a wide range of traditional tribal music. African music is a blend of soul, feelings, arts, culture, and traditions perfectly displayed in a vital shape.

In ancient times African Music was widely influenced by Tigray songs, Damara music, Eyadini songs, and Zambian classic hits. Many countries in the African continent produce music, but the most famous in this list are Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, with the note names in African Music are Koffi Olomide, Papa Wemba, Madilu, King Kester Emeneya, and Peggy Tabu.

African music is the best source considered for soul music, hip hops as well as fast based music and also somehow for slow trance based compositions. African mixtapes are a really good source to have the best African and traditional music downloaded. African music also helps to connect people in a variety of ways, strengthening the fabric of the community, which in turn reinforces commitment to supporting each other towards mutual health and prosperity. Another crucial role of music in Africa is as a mode of communication. Talking drums, signal drums, songs, and the sagas of the historian griots each communicate different types of important information.

What Are The Best Types Of African Music?

Music in Africa is no-doubt a passion more than enjoyment or pleasure. There are so many types of music produced in Africa. Soukous, Juju, Jaija, Oziddi are some of the most popular types of key music produced in Africa. People in Africa are very much crazy about music, and they are most excited to have their traditional music with them.

Awesome Tapes has a huge collection of African artists and provide music for the listeners who are the best-needed collections for Africans. African music has a vital aspect of popularity not just in Africa but also worldwide. African music is the best soul-based music generated mostly in Egypt too. Egypt is the biggest culture and music enriched country with an outstanding rich history and ancient cultures.

African music typically depicts the awesomeness of African music, its vast culture, and also about the latest trends including classic and traditional touch too in music for the best engagement for the people. Awesome tapes provide with the best and awesome music mix, and popular artists including Khalifa Gueye, Shaka Bundu, Paapieye, Sato Na Hangana, and many other more artists who provide with the best music ever for the listeners.

What Is The Diversity Of African Music?

Despite their diversity, traditional African musical forms share some common traits. The emphasis is placed more strongly on rhythms than on melody and harmony. Repetition is used as an organizing principle on top of which improvisation is built. African music is mostly performed by groups of musicians, frequently employing polyphony, polyrhythm, and a conversational style of music and interlocking.

The most frequently used form in African musical traditions consists of the use of ostinato, or repeated short musical phrases with the accompaniment of melodic-rhythmic patterns. For example, in the call and response method, a leader usually sings a phrase with a chorus singing back a response. Two or more melodies may be combined to form larger sectional formations. Contrast is achieved through a series of musical movements or “acts,” each consisting of a section repeated several times.

Rhythmic Structure

Rhythm is the most distinguishing characteristic of African musical tradition. Four basic elements characterize the African rhythmic structure. They are an equal pulse base, a metric time arrangement, a specific organizing principle unifying a diversity of simultaneous rhythmic patterns together, and an exact starting point for rhythmic groupings.

Texture

African music, from the communal nature of African society, is marked by the simultaneous sounding of two or more pitches. Melody and rhythm are interwoven within this dense structure of various instrumental and metric combinations. Ornamental devices, either vocal or instrumental, are commonly used to create additional layers, providing a richer density. Another important feature of African music is its related movements or body percussions, such as hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and dance. Body movement is strongly encouraged by this type of music.

Text/lyrics

African music is often used to transmit messages and ideas and to record and recount historical events. Consequently, the meaning of the texts and their relation to the music especially important.

Polyphony

The composition of African music employs polyphony. Polyphony is defined as the composition of multiple simultaneously sounding and rhythmically independent parts. In such a composition, the originating melody carries given more importance than the resultant harmony. The Zulu choral music of South Africa is an example of vocal polyphony. When this music is performed, individual voices will enter at different moments cyclically and continuously, giving rise to a complex and constantly shifting texture.

Repetition

Most African composition is based on the repetition of a musical unit. It is that repetition that holds together the other musical units of the composition. These other units are structured with great freedom related to the first unit, producing their own rhythmic pattern that coincides only occasionally with that of the other units and with the basic pulse. For example, in the mbira music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, a repeated pattern is established by the interaction of various parts, and the musician develops an improvisation out of this core pattern.

Call and response

The call and response is a form of music composition wherein a vocalist or instrumentalist will sing or play a phrase and another vocalist or instrumentalist will answer with another phrase creating a lively exchange.

Hocketing

Hocketing is the sharing of rhythmic or melodic lines between two or more players, one part resting while the other part performs a note or notes. An essential element of hocketing is integration—the working together and interlocking of the parts. In a more general sense, fast alternation of short groups of notes between voices, instruments, and timbres is a key element in the polyphonic and polyrhythmic structure that is distinctive too much of the music in sub-Saharan Africa.

Musical instruments

Besides using the voice, which has been developed to use various techniques such as complex melisma and yodel, a wide variety of musical instruments are used in African music.

These include a wide array of drums. Drums used in African traditional music include Tama talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (pronounced by some "engoma") in Central and Southern Africa.

Besides the numerous drums, African percussion instruments can be divided into two broad categories: Instruments with rhythmic functions and instruments with melodic functions. Large gongs, twin gongs, slit gongs, and ritual gongs; rattles and foot rattle; woodblocks, bells, and double bells are examples of instruments with rhythmic functions. Other percussion instruments used for rhythmic parts include shakers, such as the kosika, rainsticks, and woodsticks. The melodic instruments include string instruments, (musical bows, different types of harps and harp-like instruments like the Kora as well as fiddles), many types of xylophone and lamellophone such as the mbira, and different types of wind instrument like flutes and trumpets.

A more specific classification can be made by categorizing them into groups namely, chordophones, idiophones, aerophones, and membraphones, following the Hornbostel-Sachs system of classification for musical instruments.

Membraphones

Membraphones are instruments that produce sound by a vibrating membrane. The most prevalent type of membranophone, drums, are utilized as both melodic and rhythmic instruments and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some of these drums are beaten with the hand, while others are beaten with a stick or rubbed. Some are single-headed and some double-headed and they are played in ensembles of varying sizes. These include the ngoma kettledrums of South Africa, the West African hourglass pressure drum, bompili clay pot drums usually played by women, frame drums, and countless other drums are played throughout Africa.

Chordophones

Chordophones are instruments that produce sounds with vibrating strings, sometimes plucked, sometimes struck, sometimes with a bow. One of the simplest and the most widespread of these instruments is the musical bow. Types of the musical bow included the earth bow, the mouth bow, and the resonator bow. An earth bow is made by planting one end of a flexible pole in the ground and bent it at an angle to the ground. To the end of the pole, attach a string and on the other end of the string attach a stone or a small piece of wood which is planted in the ground. The mouth bow is formed of a string that is attached to both ends of a flexible pole such that the pole is shaped to form a bow with the string. The string is held in the mouth and stuck on a spot along its length. The mouth will help alter the amplification of the original sound of the struck string.

The resonator bow is a type of mouth bow, but with a calabash resonator fixed at the middle.

The kora, a multiple resonator bow, is one of the most important musical instruments in West Africa, usually played by the griot, or village historian. The kora is made from a natural calabash cut in half and partially covered with cow skin, with a hardwood post running through it. Between twenty and twenty-five, strings run the length of the instrument, passing over a bridge that rests on the stretched skin cover.

 

Download Music Which Makes Your Soul Altogether.

African music with much popularity has many sources to download the most popular songs and music from. These include

  • SA Hip Hop Mag
  • Notjustok
  • Ghana Music
  • NaijaVibes
  • Jaguda.com
  • Hiphopza
  • Fakaza
  • PulseNigeria

 

Summary

Africa is the most diverse land with many cultural, religious, and other traditions, making it the most vibrant and diverse continent on earth. The music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continents many regions, nations, and ethnic groups. The African continent comprises approximately 20 percent of the world's landmass and has a population of roughly 934 million.

African music is as diverse as its cultures and peoples and has flowered in many indigenous forms as well as been shaped by foreign influences.

Although there are many different varieties of music in Africa, there are several common elements to the music, especially within regions. The concept of music in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa bears a difference from other regions and cultures.

The roles of music and dance are tightly woven together in sub-Saharan Africa, and music intersects with every aspect of life, expresses life through the medium of sound. By helping mark the important moments in life, music helps to underscore the divine and eternal value of human life.

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