The big deal was not who won and who lost at this year’s Grammys. Forget the winners and losers at this year’s Grammy Awards. Forget what the media called the rivalry between the Nigerian and South Africa for the Grammy Awards. Forget about the surprise winner at the Awards by South African artist called Tiya who was little known by the music industry who became a kind of surprise winner that surprised insiders of the African entertainment industry.
Modern African music is dominated by the Nigerians, the Congolese, the South Africans and what not. The big winner at this year’s Grammy Awards was not however a singer but a continent. True there were many singers who won the prestigious Award in previous years but more than Tiya, more than Davido and more than Burna boy and other elite vocalists, what was important was the fact that Afrobeat, a music genre born and raised in Africa has been recognized and became part of the Pop music genre at the global level. By the way what kind of music is Afrobeat?
Afrobeat, also known as Afro funk, is a Nigerian music genre that involves the combination of West African musical styles from mainly Nigeria such as the traditional Yoruba and Igbo music and highlife with American funk, jazz and soul influences. With a focus with chanted vocals complex intersecting rhythms, and percussions. Afrobeat is a kind of music you may not know unless you listen to it because it is a relatively less known genre although the style was pioneered in the 1960s by the Nigerian Fela Kuti.
Fela Kuti is considered the one who is most known for popularizing the style both within and outside Nigeria. according to sources, “music historians have traced origin sounds of Afrobeat in Ghana and Nigeria as early as the 1920 but most people would mark the birth of the genre to the 1960s.”
What are the characteristics of Afrobeat? According to Fela Kuti, “the characteristics of Afrobeat include big bands, long instrumental solos, and complex jazzy rhythms.” This is also a beat confusing and weird by way of explanation unless you listen to the music itself to known what they talk about.
What is pop music so that we can see why it is now accepted as part of the pop music tradition? “Pop music is an abbreviation of the word ‘Popular”. It is a contemporary form of music that appeals to a wide audience. it often includes a danceable tempo, easy to remember lyrics, and simple notation.” Again, this description hardly gives you the taste of pop music.
Yet we recognize Pop and other genres by listening to them simply because music as a fine art that appeals to the ears rather than to the eyes. Like an attempt to evaluate the similarities between Afrobeat and Pop can only be attempted by listening to both. Unfortunately we have a few if no music critics who could tell us the difference between the various music genres and that is seriously felt in this country where the taste of modern music is not sometimes palatable even to the musicians themselves.
anyway, the big deal is that Afrobeat is now considered part and parcel of the Pop music tradition at the international level and this is a big stride for African music that has long become a global competitor against Western music genres thanks to contributions by the likes of Fela Kuti, and Mulatu Astatke to name only two of them.
Ethiopia is never represented at the Grammy because of the kind of African music played in west, north or south Africa are not popular in this country. African musicians in general do not know other African musicians and their works. They rather play western genres such as hip hop or blues or any other type or style.
The second reason is Ethiopian musicians are not only well-acquainted or well informed about African music, but they are not also working hard to bring their own traditional music to the forefront, modernize it, popularize and make it competitive in the global arena. This if of course something that requires hard work, continued devotion more to Ethiopian music than to Western music.
No Ethiopian musician worthy of the name has come forward to claim the mantle to represent Ethiopia at major international festivals and awards. Ethiopian artists in every field compete among themselves or imitate one another instead of coming up with groundbreaking works that could rank them among the best in Africa. They look like the proverbial whale who thinks that the world is confined to the visible part of the sky that can be seen when he opens his wide mouth. Ethiopian musicians are good at admiring one another or copying from one another rather than inventing new types of music by using their rich traditional and cultural resources. When Ethiopian music was at its best in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Nigerians or Senegalese or south African or Congolese musicians who have now assumed leadership in Africa were not even born or known.
As Ethiopian music rose to the highest picks and then rolled down into mediocrity, it lost all momentum and left the place to the late comers in Africa. How many years have been counted since a major Ethiopian artist shined at a major festival? Aster Aweke at the Kora Awards before the new millennium dawned singing her old tunes to accompaniments of African dancers! That is a long time ago although there were minor events in between.
The only exception to this rule might be Mulatu Astatke, dubbed the father of African jazz or Afro-jazz. Although Mulatu who is well-established in the global music arena and has already won many international awards, he has not yet found the opportunity to catch the limelight at global music awards like the Grammy. Mulatu is the pioneer of the music genre known as “Afro Jazz” but this genre has not so far made it to the Grammys. In the absence of other competitors in the Afro jazz genre, it is unlikely that Mulatu would win a Grammy any time soon.
Mulatu should have organized his own orchestra complete with musicians and vocalists as well as dancers whom he could make global tours as ambassador of African music in general. That could have made him and his music more known and appreciated globally. Other African musicians, particularly the young ones could have emulated his style and come up with something of a modern version of Afro jazz by combining traditional songs and dances from every part of Africa.
In this way, a genuine competition could have been launched for the best Afro Jazz style and awarding ceremonies could have been used as instruments to bring out the best out of Mulatu’s music. This way Afro jazz could have spread widely by now and become one of the major global music styles. The more alarming fact however is that there is no heir apparently to Mulatu’s music style, someone who is completely devoted to it and determined to bring out to the attention of the global audience. Thus the survival of Afro Jazz itself seems to be at stake as no one has emerged from the horizon of serious Ethiopian modern music to claim his mantle. Afro jazz is not even widely known among most African music lovers. There are also other African styles that are little known to the wider public. For instance we have a style known as Afro Pop that has not been widely known within the continent. Even the organizers of this year’s Grammy might not be aware of its existence. Otherwise, they could have changed their minds. They could have said for instance that, “since African has already Afro Pop as a distinctive music style, why should we worry about whether Afro Beat should be recognized as part of the Pop style since it is already there.”
Anyway, the good news at this year’s Grammy was that African musicians have shined and demonstrated their potentials to produce some of the best music on the continent. They have whetted the appetite of major producers who will certainly flock to Africa in order to lure the best and brightest to sign fresh contracts with them. Although the Ethiopian music industry may not produce musicians equal to the calibers of singers like Davido or any other on the continent, there is currently a lone shining star in Ethiopia’s music firmament and that is Rophnan.
One day, he may suddenly emerge at one of the global awards with his inventions and astound the world with his style of music and his talent that has an edge over the other African singers. Rophnan may not be a vocalist per se as we know him here in Africa although he has the talent to be one. The major musicians in Africa at present may be talented in other areas as producers or lyricists but Rophnan who started as a DJ is now everything: composer, vocalist, percussionist, producer, mixer and lyricist to name a few of his talents. Can we expect him to pop up at the next Grammy as the first Ethiopian winner of the award? Why not?
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2024
