A brief history of Ghanaian music

The music of Ghana, for the first time since the 1970s, is again beginning to reach an international audience

The music of Ghana, for the first time since the 1970s, is again beginning to reach an international audience. A slew of releases from world music labels, including Soundway Records, are garnering widespread coverage among discerning music fans. Many of the records being released are reissues and compilations of Afro-beat tunes from the 1950s-1980s. As an introduction to highlife they make for essential albums. In fact, it’s musicians (and football players) who are making the greatest inroads in disseminating the Ghanaian message. From the 1960s onwards, highlife groups and Afro-pop bands such as Osibisa have shown the world the country’s lively and frenetic creative face. Today they’re being aided by the success of hiplife stars, with the national profile being raised overseas by docu-films such as HomeGrown: Hiplife in Ghana and successful album collections such as Ghana Special. (Just look at what the Buena Vista Social Club did for Cuba’s profile.

Musical roots

Ghana’s musical map was once dominated by highlife – a genre so diverse it managed to survive not just western influence, but incorporate the disparate styles imported to the country over centuries to produce an effervescent sound that reflects the vibrancy of Ghana itself. The polyrhythmic, slightly discordant charms of Ghana’s trademark highlife could have only emerged from this city. The origins of the music are in the big band sound, brought over by British troops during World War Two, melded with Caribbean Tropicana and also deeply inspired by traditional Ghanaian music.

Tracing the roots of highlife back, we can follow a direct line to the rhythms of the pre-colonial Gold Coast when storytellers would sit in the shade and spin yarns to the accompaniment of the seperew, a harp-lute that is often considered the precursor to the guitar. Although strictly a form of praise for the Akan people, its influence can be heard in many types of Ghanaian music. It’s one of many musical traditionas alive in the country today.

The frantic drumming, so often taught in Ghana and West Africa, is largely from the Dagomba nation in the north, and is often accompanied by molo lutes and goje fiddles.

To the south, among the Ga, Akan and Ewe peoples, drums and bells again dominate the traditional scene. The wooden xylophone and the kora harp add a confident melody over the beats.

Highlife to hiplife

Step into many of the nightclubs in Ghana’s cities and more often than not you’ll be confronted with the throbbing beats and visceral energy of hiplife. A blend of hip hop, dancehall and highlife, of course, hiplife has become a favourite of DJs and clubbers alike. It has evolved into a deeper, more localised groove. Rapping in Twi, other local languages and pidgin, artists like Kwa Kwese and Samini have mined this new sound to move Ghanaian dancefloors and find a new audience; and full of direct urging, the homegrown sound gets an energetic response from young Ghanaian crowds. Hiplife has become massively popular in the capital and across the country, and was pretty much pioneered by Reggie Rockstone, known as the ‘Godfather of Hiplife’.

Yet while there are many clubs and bars playing modern American music for the young and young at heart, the older set still prefer the softer sounds of the old school. Recordings of the Tempos (led by the famous ET Mensah), Nana Ampadu and his band the African Brothers, AB Crentsil and highlife bands such as Ramblers International all still retain a strong following, particularly in Ghana’s rural areas where ‘concert parties’ combine music and theatre. More recent artists like Daddy Lumba and raglife artist Batman continue the tradition while adding their own spin to it.

In 21st century Accra, hip hop, reggae, pop, funeral tunes and traditional music all mingle into an electrifying cacophony. Eighty years since its heyday, highlife, its precursors and its off-shoots still provide the soundtrack to a city that is fuelled by music.