What I’ve learned about different kinds of African music

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tldr my recommendations are Zamrock, Zimbabwean mbira music, Afrobeat, and Sauti Sol. Of those, Sauti Sol is the catchiest and most approachable

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My New Year’s Resolution for 2021 was to make it so that 1/3 of the music I listened to (as measured by last.fm which tracks Spotify listens) should be by African artists. It’s now mid-December, I’m on track to hit my goal, and I thought it would be interesting to track what I’ve learned so far.

Instead of having like a full coherent narrative for this post, I’ve decided to just slice up some of my learnings and opinions in different sections.

High level observations about music in Africa:

  • Kenyans (and most Africans, from what I gather) tend to listen to a lot of music from all over Africa, most of which is in languages they don’t know. As one Kenyan guy said when a group of Kenyans were singing a Lingala (DRC) song “We know all the words and don’t know what a damn thing means”

  • There are a few countries that seem to be musically closed off though. From what I’ve heard, specifically Angola and Ethiopia tend to be happy with their own music and listen to relatively little foreign music (African or otherwise)

  • Reggae is super popular, so much so that I decided to expand my New Year’s Resolution to be that 1/3 of the music I listen to should be African or Jamaican (since the goal was to immerse myself in African art, and reggae is such an important art in Africa)

  • Everyone loves ABBA. The same Kenyan guy as above said “you can play ABBA in any club in the world and people will start dancing”

Luke’s Top 10 favorite artists

  1. Stella Chiweshe - my favorite performer of Zimbabwean mbira music, which is my favorite genre I’ve discovered this year. The mbira sounds a little like a glockenspiel or a marimba, and sounds incredibly soothing. And when you have a bunch of mbiras going at once, it creates super interesting rhythms and melody lines. Huvhimi (YouTube) and Uchiseka (YouTube) are both great songs. I’m hoping to go to Zimbabwe sometime in the next year to see this kind of music performed live.

  2. Sauti Sol - the biggest and best band from Kenya. Everyone knows them. They just make great pop songs, lots of them sung largely in English, so very approachable. Start with Suzanna (YouTube) and Melanin (YouTube)

  3. Fela Kuti - maybe the most famous African musician of all time, he’s just really good. Basically invented Afrobeat in the 70s (sort of Nigerian jazz/funk), very influential on people like Talking Heads and Brian Eno. I love Water Get No Enemy (YouTube) and Everything Scatter (YouTube) but you can’t go wrong with him.

  4. Msafiri Zawose - Tanzanian bandleader makes largely instrumental music that mixes Gogo instruments with electronic production. Really cool textures. Kind of stereotypically what I would have imagined “arty African music” to sound like before coming here. Uhamiaji is one of my favorite African albums (Spotify) (YouTube). Have not met anyone here who listens to him - recommended by a friend from Iowa

  5. Soliman Gamil - traditional Egyptian instrumental musician. Great melody and great textures. If the opening notes of Melody Of Nile (YouTube) don’t get you excited then I can’t help you. Sufi Dialogue (YouTube) mixes Arab and Indian instruments and rules. Don’t know anyone who listens to him

  6. Francis Bebey - psychedelic and electronic music from 70s and 80s Cameroon. He makes two main kinds of music I like: The hypnotic rhythm of Psychedelic Sanza using electric bass, and the mbira-like sansa. And there’s the fun, almost corny electronic side of African Electronic Music (it’s nice how straightforward his album names are). He has way more music that I haven’t touched yet. Haven’t met anyone who knows of him except Win Butler. For songs try Sanza nocturne (YouTube) and The Coffee Cola Song (YouTube)

  7. Maia & the Big Sky - Kenyan funk/rock/R&B band. Very approachable from an American perspective - lots is sung in English. Pawa (YouTube music video) is great and Lola (YouTube music video) is my favorite.

  8. Bonga - one of the biggest musicians in Angola, recommended by my Angolan friend. Very Portuguese influenced - to me it sounds a lot like Bossa Nova. Mona Ki Ngi Xica (YouTube) and Kubangela (YouTube) are good

  9. Ike Slimster - Nigerian musician living in New York who makes ambient music. Reminds me a lot of Four Tet. Good background music for working (don’t mean that as a backhanded compliment - I love furniture music). MAASAI (YouTube) is a cool song (remixed traditional Maasai music. Also has a similar remix of Somali aunties singing), and EVERYTHING IS FINE is a fine album

  10. Toure Kunda - Senegalese band, have a cool mix of funk and more “traditional”-sounding music. Amadou Tilo (YouTube) sounds like the desert. Samala (YouTube) is more reggae-inspired. I just found them online, don’t know anyone else who listens to them

Honorable mention for Zamrock, an artist not a genre. Kids in Zambia in the 70s listened to Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and the Rolling Stones, combined it with traditional rhythms and made fuzzy psychedelic rock and roll. A few songs are I’ve Been Losing by Chrissy Zebby Tembo and Ngozi Family (YouTube), Poverty by Cosmos Zani (YouTube), Sheebeen Queen by Musi-O-Tunya (YouTube)

Afrobeats and Congolese Rhumba (two genres the kids actually listen to):

If you want to know some African music that might be socially relevant in the US, Afrobeats is the place to go. It’s somewhat of a catchall term for “Nigerian-inspired African pop music” but most typically refers to chill, sparse, rhythmic hip hop (as far as I can tell). (Not to be confused with Afrobeat - older funkier Fela Kuti-style Nigerian music.) The biggest artists here are some of the biggest African artists generally: WizKid, Burna Boy, Omah Lay. WizKid and Burna Boy have both collaborated with huge Western artists (Drake and Beyonce for Wizkid, Chris Martin and Ed Sheeran for Burna Boy, Justin Bieber for both). You’ve probably heard Afrobeats inspired music in Drake’s One Dance which features WizKid.

Congolese Rhumba, usually called just Rhumba or Lingala in Kenya is super popular, guitar-driven dancing music from the Congo. Seems to be really popular all over Africa. I don’t listen that much, but Ultimatum (YouTube) is a pretty typical song, and Waah! (YouTube) is very popular.

Church music:

Even in English-language Catholic Masses, the songs are sill almost always in Swahili. Drum machines feature prominently - after the priest finishes saying a prayer, you’ll hear the “dum, ch, du-dum” of the drum machine kick in and know it’s about time for you to sing. There’s almost always a full choir, lots of clapping and swaying, an electric organ, and sometimes other percussion as well

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