African popular music, like African traditional music

Music of Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, salsa

Salsa music

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...

 zouk

Zouk

Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...

, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by African slaves. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

. Likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 techniques of western music.

Afropop

Afropop or Afro Pop is a term sometimes used to refer to contemporary African pop music. The term does not refer to a specific style or sound, but is used as a general term to describe African popular music.

Genres

Genres of African popular music include:

Afrobeat Afrobeat Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to... Apala Apala Apala is a musical genre, originally derived from the Yoruba people of Nigeria.It is a percussion-based style that developed in the late 1930s, when it was used to wake worshippers after fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan... Benga Benga music Benga is a genre of Kenyan popular music. It evolved between the late 1940s and late 1960s, in Kenya's capital city of Nairobi. In the 1940s, the African Broadcasting Service in Nairobi aired a steady stream of soukous, South African kwela, Zairean finger-style guitar and various kinds of Cuban... Bongo Flava Bongo Flava Bongo flava is a nickname for Tanzanian hip hop music. The genre developed in the 1990s, mainly as a derivative of American hip hop, with additional influences from reggae, R&B, afrobeat, dancehall, and traditional Tanzanian styles such as taarab and dansi, a combination that forms a unique style... Bikutsi Bikutsi Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaounde. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century in West Africa... Cape Jazz Cape jazz Cape jazz is a genre of jazz, similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character, which is performed in the very southern part of Africa... Chimurenga Chimurenga music Chimurenga music is a Zimbabwean popular music genre coined and popularised by Thomas Mapfumo. Chimurenga is a Shona language word for struggle. The word's modern interpretation has been extended to describe a struggle for human rights, political dignity and social justice... Fuji music Fuji music Fuji is a popular Nigerian musical genre. It arose from the improvisation Ajisari/were music tradition, which is a kind of music performed to wake muslims before dawn during the Ramadan fasting season... Genge Genge Genge music, or simply Genge, is a genre of hip hop music that had its beginnings in Nairobi, Kenya. The name was coined by Clemo and popularized by Kenyan rappers Jua Cali and Nonini who started off at Calif Records. It is a style that incorporates hip hop, dancehall and traditional African music... Highlife Highlife Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920... Hiplife Hiplife Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style which fuses highlife and hip hop. It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe and Ga, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States,... Isicathamiya Isicathamiya Isicathamiya is a singing style that originated from the South African Zulus. In European understanding, a cappella is also used to describe this form of singing.-Background:...

Jit Jit Jit is a style of popular Zimbabwean dance music. It features a swift rhythm played on drums and accompanied by a guitar. Jit evolved out many diverse influences, including domestic chimurenga, Congolese rumba and Tanzanian guitar styles... Jùjú Jùjú music Jùjú is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name comes from a Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown." Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which "is a form of magic and the use of magic objects or... Kapuka Boomba music Boomba music, also referred to as Kapuka , is a form of hip pop music popular in Kenya. It incorporates hip hop, reggae and African traditional musical styles. The lyrics are in Swahili, Sheng or local dialects...   aka Boomba Kizomba Kizomba Kizomba is one of the most popular genres of dance and music created in Angola. Derived directly from Zouk, sung generally in Portuguese, it is a genre of music with a romantic flow mixed with African rhythm. The kizomba dancing style is also known to be very sensual.- Origin :Kizomba was developed... Kuduro Kuduro Kuduro is a type of music and dance originally born in Angola in the 1980s. It is characterized as uptempo, energetic, and danceable. Kuduro, which translates as "hard ass", began in Luanda, Angola in the late 80s... Kwaito Kwaito Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples,... Kwela Kwela Kwela is a happy, often pennywhistle-based, street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.... Makossa Makossa Makossa is a type of music that is most popular in urban areas in Cameroon. It is similar to soukous, except that it includes strong bass rhythm and a prominent horn section. Makossa, which means " dance" in Duala, originated from a type of Duala dance called kossa, with significant influences... Maloya Maloya Maloya is one of the two major music genres of Réunion, usually sung in Réunion Creole, traditionally with a purely percussion accompaniment. It has origins in the music of slaves on the island, as has the other folk music of Réunion, sega. It is sometimes compared to the American music, the... Marrabenta Marrabenta Marrabenta is a form of Mozambican dance music. It was developed in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, formerly Lourenço Marques. The name was derived from the Portuguese rebentar , meaning to break. Marrabenta is influenced by Mozambican and Portuguese folk music and the Western popular music... Mbalax Mbalax Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and The Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal... Museve Museve Museve is a popular Zimbabwe music genre. It derives its name from the Shona word which means an Arrow. This is generally so because the music is considered to have a very fast tempo, especially the beat and is characterised by fast dance routines such as 'Borrowdale dance" popularised by Alich...   aka Sungura

Mbaqanga Mbaqanga Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s.-History:... Mbube Mbube (genre) Mbube is a form of South African vocal music, made famous by the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The word mbube means "lion" in Zulu. Traditionally performed a cappella, the members of the group are male although a few groups have a female singer... Morna Palm-wine Palm-wine music Palm-wine music is a West African musical genre. It evolved among the Kru people of Sierra Leone and Liberia, who used Portuguese guitars brought by sailors, combining local melodies and rhythms with Trinidadian calypso and soca music... Pandza Raï Raï Raï is a form of folk music that originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s.... Reggae Reggae Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based... Sakara Sakara music Sakara music is a form of popular Nigerian music based in the traditions of Yoruba music.It is a Moslem-influenced style, mostly in the form of praise songs, that uses only traditional Yoruba instruments such as the solemn-sounding Goje violin, and the small round Sakara drum, which is similar to a... Sega Sega music Sega music or Séga is the major music of the Mascarene Islands: Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues as well as of the Seychelles. Sega is similar to the Réunionnais music genre maloya. Another form of dance similar to the sega is the Seychellois moutya. Sega music originated among the slave... Semba Semba Semba is a traditional type of music from the Southern-African country of Angola. Semba comes from the singular Masemba, meaning "a touch of the bellies", a move that characterizes the Semba dance.-Characteristics:... Shangaan disco Shangaan electro Soukous Soukous Soukous is a dance music genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa...  aka Congo, Lingala or African rumba Taarab Taarab Taarab is a music genre popular in Tanzania and Kenya. It is influenced by music from the cultures with a historical presence in East Africa, including music from East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe... Zouglou Zouglou Zouglou is a dance oriented style of music from the Côte d'Ivoire that first evolved in the 1990s out of the university crisis at the time. It started with students from the University of Abidjan...