Has Afrobeat Overtaken Reggae/Dancehall in Global Popularity?

[truth2you]

Pull up my comment Where I said Afro beats will be just as big as hip hop if not bigger ...watch I’ll give it 3 years

The only way that will happen is if the sound constantly changes. Rap music is big because it has constantly changed its sounds. Also, because black people in America had different versions of it in different areas, but even in NYC the sound would change twice every decade.

Once a genre keeps doing the same style of flow, and music for too long, it's over as far as growing. I watched dancehall get big because dj red alert mixed it with rap in the late 80s, early 90 on his radio show, but after mixing with rap, the sound didn't really evolve so it wasnt populat with Ados anymore after the late 90s.

Afrobeat sounds like dancehall, but it's faster so it makes you want to dance, but I can tell its gonna go the same route of dancehall because the sound hasn't changed much, anything can happen, though. It can get away with it now because rap is the same way so young people dont know any other way to hear music, unless they just live music, and listen to older stuff. Once the sound of rap changes, Afrobeat gotta keep up or go the same route as dancehall, but some people like that, going mainstream fukks the music up a lot of times

 

[Crude Abolitionist]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

not speaking English hurts its appeal

 

[Ugo Ogugwa]

Lord please let covid 19 pass so we can fly to Nigeria asap. Amen

 

[Spade]

That’s my jam love South African house.

I don’t know if the singers in this video here are South Africa but I know it’s a South African house mix. Heard it a couple years ago and liked it.

 

[A1aaa]

brief aside: damn, how insecure do you have to be to enter a thread like this just to attempt to passive aggressively devolve it into a diaspora war to have a false sense of superiority. mental illness is so real on here.


anyway, afrobeats has come a long way. dancehall and reggae have definitely been the preeminent cultural sound on the continent for a long time...especially due to a) popularization of rastafari movement/pan-africanism dating back to the 60s/70s and b) similar social experience of living in the developing world amongst african and caribbean people.

legendary jamaican reggae artist burning spear in nairobi:



afrobeats has leapfrogged dancehall with a more dynamic and versatile mainstream sound than dancehall as of right now, though. no one in dancehall has the charisma/creativity level of a prime vybz kartel currently...but he was a once in a generation artist despite the controversy.

afrobeats refined its sound in the past five years by blending stylistic elements from the diaspora (US, Caribbean, UK) with its own...as opposed to stuff i was hearing in the early 2010s which sounded like a bad knockoff of American hip hop .

some artists were already ahead of the curve on their sound before the surge in popularity outside of african circles, like p-square (nigerian):

 

[Mickey Kane]

Don't think I saw my congolese brehs mentioned

MY PEOPLE.

Nice to see the Congo get some love.



Whilst I grew up with Congolese music at home, I haven't really began to 'embrace' it until very recently.

This is my sh*t right now

 

[Nemesis]

People that are into afrobeat are generally into dancehall

The issue comes down to the fact that your average dancehall tune cant be played on radio while your average afrobeat tune can

Jamaican dancehall stars are massive in Africa , they fill stadiums , in terms of money they make and bookings they are making more money than ever , so its not a case of dancehall falling off because it hasnt , its more popular than ever and this is a Nigerian telling you this

And furthermore modern afrobeat is heavily influenced by dancehall because Africans love dancehall and dancehall artists , the biggest Afrobeat artists in the world will be quick to tell you how much they love and respect dancehall

Afro beat is more radio friendly and thats the ONLY reason why , explicit music wont get radio play , and thats it

What jars me is that idiots are presenting things in a way that dancehall artists are doing something wrong and Afrobeat artists are doing something right ..... the truth is NOBODY thinks this


The reason why dancehall is so popular in Africa is because dancehall artists are true to themselves , they make a tune and thats it , if its too explicit for radio so be it , they arent fake and even though they dont get played on radio they are still as popular as ever

Afro beat generally has never been explicit , this has nothing to do with radio or marketing , the simple fact is historically its always been like that , they are also being true to themselves

each genre is representing their culture correctly


Im going to tell some of you people this , some of you love causing division amongst black people because you hate yourselves , and because you are too cowardly to ever challenge the white man you do your utmost to try and bring others down to your level

I am a proud Nigerian i dont want to be anything else , I love Jamaican culture and African American culture and always have done , I see a black man I support him , where he is from is irrelevant to me , thats how i have always been

I do not understand why you people constantly to pit black people against each other

and the what makes me laugh are the sheep that are forever easily manipulated by you undercover CACs who dont have common sense to think for themselves

 

[invalid]

Don't Rush is currently #9 on the the Top 10 hits on our local Hip Hop radio station in Chicago.

So much for ADOS not embracing afrobeat.

 

[DeuceZ]

It's been coming since like 2006 ish.. dancehall had the thing ting locked but ild say beginning around the same time the riddims in dancehall became more dark... which at the time I thoroughly enjoyed but all u gonna do is put your gun finger in the air and go brapp brapp.. plus the content pzzy phat, shot a buss, etc after a while as you grow older u want to listen to music that u don't have to cover ppl ears... for the most part Afrobeats filled that void

But what really made it pop was the authenticity.. when Davido tried to crossover with the song with Meek shyt was horrendous, but once him and other just stuck to making African music the results caught on... another thing that caused dancehall to fall off is they tried to incorporate too much hip hop and lost its uniqueness

Having said that Govana makes some great music hamantis convo is

 

[Ya?]

not speaking English hurts its appeal

That’s not true.

 

[Ya?]

Don't Rush is currently #9 on the the Top 10 hits on our local Hip Hop radio station in Chicago.

So much for ADOS not embracing afrobeat.

Just ignore him..let’s stick to sharing great Afrobeats music

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

We will get a South African wave too they have gotten awesome music and Zulu is a beautiful language.

south africa wave lowkey predated the current afrobeat emergence in the mainstream... their house music scene has been one of the most influential in the world for the last decade in that arena. i just don't think that it can top afrobeat popularity wise and even had a head start.

 

[WePifffyMane]

brief aside: damn, how insecure do you have to be to enter a thread like this just to attempt to passive aggressively devolve it into a diaspora war to have a false sense of superiority. mental illness is so real on here.


anyway, afrobeats has come a long way. dancehall and reggae have definitely been the preeminent cultural sound on the continent for a long time...especially due to a) popularization of rastafari movement/pan-africanism dating back to the 60s/70s and b) similar social experience of living in the developing world amongst african and caribbean people.

legendary jamaican reggae artist burning spear in nairobi:



afrobeats has leapfrogged dancehall with a more dynamic and versatile mainstream sound than dancehall as of right now, though. no one in dancehall has the charisma/creativity level of a prime vybz kartel currently...but he was a once in a generation artist despite the controversy.

afrobeats refined its sound in the past five years by blending stylistic elements from the diaspora (US, Caribbean, UK) with its own...as opposed to stuff i was hearing in the early 2010s which sounded like a bad knockoff of American hip hop .

some artists were already ahead of the curve on their sound before the surge in popularity outside of african circles, like p-square (nigerian):

1000%...Roots Reggae is so influential in Kenya...Joseph Hill and Burning Spear are gods here

 

[Ya?]

south africa wave lowkey predated the current afrobeat emergence in the mainstream... their house music scene has been one of the most influential in the world for the last decade in that arena. i just don't think that it can top afrobeat popularity wise and even had a head start.

I disagree...but we shall see.