Christal Domingo

History

Afrobeat originally came from the continent of Africa however the music itself originated from Ghana but then became influential to the southern part of Nigeria where it was brought about by Fela Kuti during the 1960s, it is a mixture of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, funk, and chanted vocals, harmonies, heavy beat drums. The person responsible for the collaboration of traditional music and contemporary music ideas was Fela Kuti. The Afrobeat itself is made up of a mixture of chants, call and response vocals, and complex rhythms with a range of instruments such as a tenor guitar, bass guitar ,drum set, Saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and keyboards. In the life of Fela Kuti we find that he was a supporter of the Black Panthers; a human rights activist who with all bravery challenged the military dictatorship. Fela Kuti was also foundered a political party called the Nigerian Movement for the People campaign which he became the leader of. Therefore the ideas of his music were inspired by the political affairs of the country. He used social criticism to instigate social change; the messages given were confrontational and controversial but this was not only able to influence the minds of the people in Nigeria but was also to deal with the issues in other countries in Africa who would have faced political disruption within their country in the 1960s. Many were dealing with the aftermath of ‘political injustice and military corruption whilst recovering from the transition from colonial governments to self-determination’. After the launching of one of his records ‘Mister Follow follow’ which was an attack on the brutality of the Nigerian military, the army’s response to this was horrendous they almost beat Fela Kuti to death and threw his elderly mother out of a top floor window. The afrobeat genre was used to lyrically surfaces the views about the unsettlement of the country and what people need to do to resolve it. However Afrobeat was able to unit contemporary producers and musicians together such as Brian Eno and David Byrne who credited Fela Kuti for is musical intelligence.

Christal Domingo

How is it distributed? (Identify the target audience)

This genre of music is distributed in many ways of which can be performed in a live concert for the audience to hear, can be distributed on global networks which is commonly on YouTube, a video as well as their music is being broadcasted globally on a site that can be viewed by many people, and where comments, likes and dislikes are an optional choice. This particular genre of music can also be shared by word of mouth as it is quite a trending topic for audiences as young as 7 up and into adult ages as the music is made to suit age varying audiences with a signature of learning a set of choreography incorporated with the type of music. Therefore young people able to promote and distribute new styles of music and dance routines. Some other strategies would be to hand CD’s out on the street to people for free for them to have a listen to. But however the most common way of really publicizing this is through using the media. Broadcasting on televisions is a primary source for this particular genre distribution as it is able to really allow them to put themselves out there in the music industry and to be seen by other music producers, usually viewed on music channels such as BET, MTV Base, KlearTV and many others. Social media help with the distributing of this genre as web links can be viewed and listened to by other people on Facebook and other social sites. Occasionally they are played on African radio stations African FM, Radio Africa Online. Dj vybe –Main and many others. The target audience for this genre of music is mainly targeted towards the African community but with the intention of being able to appeal to other multicultural audiences by being able to engage with them and keeping them involved with new fun dance styles and bringing life to the atmosphere. Moreover the target audience would be general music lovers.