The creation of new Grammy category affirms the height African music is reaching. African music has been going through the roof at a very fast pace since the covid. The ‘Umbrella’ genre as the new category implies is experiencing a life-changing phenomenon.
This new category “Best African Music,” acknowledges the significant reach and uniqueness that African music possesses. It also shows the richness of the continent like the various cultures.
Reports from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s Global Music 2023 show that Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded the highest rate of music revenues in 2022. This phenomenon is due to genres like Afrobeats and the rising sub-genre amapiano.
This new category talks about many African music genres like Afrobeat, Afropop, Soukous, Shaabi, Chaabi, Benga, Bongo Flava, Fuji, and High Life. These genres are recognized and are rapidly getting known across the world.
The introduction of streaming platforms has helped African music to reach everywhere in the world. On Spotify, African music has experienced an outstanding growth of over 500% since 2017. Rema’s “Calm Down” and Tyla’ “Water” are examples of the global success African music is experiencing.
One of the major producers in Burna Boy’s Grammy-winning album “Twice As Tall”, LeriQ stresses the exceptionality of the sound maintaining that the African sound rhythm and feeling are what makes it stand out. These rhythms and feelings are what resonate with the young population.
However, African music is still faced with infrastructure problems, and low purchasing power but with the influx of many major record labels, it would only get better from there.
The feel-good genre as many people call it also serves as an influential tool against bad governance and suppression.
The global acceptance the music garnered has brought hope among the stakeholders in the industry like Efe Omorogbe who sees the potency the African music carries. It is impossible to not pay attention to the genre as the new category emphasizes the obvious height it has reached.
