A first time visitor to Africa may be surprised at encountering more Western pop than African music on the airwaves. African stations are choke-full of rap, hip-hop, blues and other genres which essentially lack that deep African vibe. I mean, there are African artists who thrive on these artforms too. There is obviously nothing wrong with Africans taking up Western music as their own, and adding a twist to it. What I would like to see more of is Africans taking African music, and fusing it with other genres to make it richer. Not the other way round.

The omnipresence of Western music may come from the Western cultural imperialism that has happened in the past few decades. The presence of a global village means that those with greater economic resources (the West) are more capable of spreading their influence farther than those without these resources. This cannot be undone easily, and it may have its benefits nonetheless. But despite this, I don't think it is impossible for African artists to simply present their true African voice without thinking about 'global appeal' and 'economic viability'. Recent kenyan artists who have or are succeeding in presenting this 'African voice' include Kenya's own Suzanna Owiyo. Another example could be Ladysmith Black Mambazo from South Africa - whose global appeal grew as a result of their collabo with Paul Simon.

I have always had a keen ear for African sounds and how they can be infused with other more-popular genres to produce a richer and more modern sound. One of the artists that I have encountered has been the Nigerian Lagbaja. The first thing that you will notice about this artist is his insistence on African clothing, African drums, the Yoruba language and most importantly, the mask that he consistently wears. I consider masks as being deeply African. So the moment you first lay eyes on him, you automatically notice that he is an AFRICAN artist.

Lagbaja

If you closely examine his music (videos and all), you realize that he places his Africanness first, then merges it with other sounds. There is no one African sound ... there is no formula for an African sound, but anyone can tell when an artist is being African (musically, of course) or adopting a foreign style. I am also not advocating that African music is boring and that it needs to modernize. I consider music as a language ... something that you can learn ... and once mastered .... you can adapt it in various ways ... thereby expanding the language. I am a proponent of fusion of musical genres. Nevertheless, I would like the African sound to be the dominant sound being fused as opposed to it being relegated to the background. Check this out:

This is my idea of an African musician. I'll fish up more artists to showcase (free publicity!) in the coming days ...