00:00Have you ever wondered how African music crossed over into wider pop culture?
00:05Well, let me fill you in.
00:12In the last two decades, two musical genres with African roots
00:16have been making waves around the world,
00:18carving their own niche in the music industry.
00:21The term Afrobeat first echoed through the streets of Nigeria
00:25in the early new millennium.
00:27Also referred to as Afropop or Afrofusion,
00:30Afrobeats is a vibrant brand of dance music.
00:34It mixes West African rhythms with genres from across the Americas,
00:38including hip-hop, Jamaican dancehall, funk, and R&B, among other Nigerian genres.
00:44Just to get the facts straight, Afrobeats actually has a precursor,
00:48Afrobeat, which emerged almost 50 years earlier.
00:51It was pioneered by Nigeria's Fela Kuti in the 1960s.
00:56Influenced by the US-based Black Panther Party
00:59and the Black Power movements in the 60s and 70s,
01:03Kuti used his lyrics to criticize and challenge the colonial powers.
01:08Afrobeats can be thought of as an umbrella term for contemporary West African pop music.
01:14But while Afrobeats has been going from strength to strength,
01:18another genre of African music has quickly risen in popularity.
01:22In the 2010s, in the townships of South Africa,
01:25emerged a fusion of house, kwaito, and jazz sounds
01:29rooted in a distinct African house genre.
01:32It came to be known as Amapiano.
01:38The name is derived from the native tongue Zulu and means the pianos.
01:43It is characterized by its tempo, repetitive piano melodies, and catchy bass lines.
01:49Artists like Kabza the Small, DJ Maporiza,
01:52are widely regarded as some of the pioneers of the genre.
01:56Amapiano's rise to popularity can be attributed to social media platforms
02:00such as TikTok and Instagram.
02:03With a growing global fan base,
02:05including a thriving community of artists and producers,
02:09Amapiano is poised to leave a mark on the world of music for years to come.
02:14While Afrobeats is all about getting you grooving to the beat,
02:18Amapiano is more about laid-back yet infectious rhythms
02:22driven by deep bass lines and catchy piano melodies.
02:26Music to chill to, in other words.
02:29So, whether you are vibing to Afrobeats or grooving to Amapiano,
02:34African music is becoming even more of a celebration of inclusivity,
02:38diversity, and creativity.
02:41As they say, in the battle of the beats,
02:43everyone's a winner when the music's good.
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