Media Analyst and Ace Broadcaster Nana Otu Gyandoh has posited that the Reggae genre has played a dominant role in building Africa’s music industry but has lost its relevance in the present-day music industry which is being dominated by the Afrobeat genre.
Speaking to host of 97.9FM’s Reggae Republic, Haruna Babaginda, Otu Gyandoh indicated that there are genres of music that bare their origin from Africa but are being used by Western world musicians to top music streaming charts. “You have Koreans who are on top of pop music right now with their K-Pop, disembarking form their K-Pop and now doing Afropop and Afrobeat,” he reiterated.
In an attempt to pay homage to the genre’s homeland, he tagged Jamaica has been the only nation since the introduction of more contemporary African generic music to step up to the Western world to exhibit other genres of music from the African Rennaissance, which implied that the Jamaican music industry always knew how to bring out what the world did not expect but have served their purpose.
“Jamaica has always found its way to re-invent itself; when you check out what is coming out of Jamaica right now and what they call dancehall, its more Afrobeat than dancehall.” he stated, hinting that the global music industry needs something contemporary and pop-generic from Africa.
By: Kobina Badu Baidoo
