History And Evolution Of Ghanaian Music From The 1970's To 2022 And How The Industry Has Grown Throughout These Decades

When it comes to Ghanaian music, there are many styles of traditional and modern genres due to the country's worldwide geographic position on the African continent but the best known modern genre in the country is High Life. For so many years, High Life has been the popular and preferred music genre until Hip Life and other genres were introduced. 

Ghana's traditional musicology is divided geographically between the open and vast savannah country of Northern Ghana inhabited by Ghanaian's of Gur and Mande speaking groups and the fertile, forested southern coastal areas occupied by Ghanaian's speaking Kwa languages such as Akan. 

The northern musical traditions belong to the wider Sahelian musical traditions and features a blend of melodic compositions on stringed instruments like the kologo lute and the gonjey fiddle, wind instruments such as flutes and horns, and voice. Music of the coast is linked with social functions and relies on different patterns played with drums and bells as well as harmonized songs. 

The drums and bells are accompanied with dance and the tradition of talking drums referred to as “fomtomfrom” in the Akan dialect. During the Gold Coast era, the country was a hotbed of musical syncretism and rhythms, especially from gombe, ashiko, and guitar-styles such as mainline and Osibisaba, European brass bands and sea shanties were all combined into one great sound which became High Life. 

After Ghana gained it's independence on March 6, 1957 and it's music reflected a Caribbean influence, it still retained its own special flavour and went into great development. With High Life music's elemental swings of jazz, soukous, and ska, Ghanaian musicians attained great success in the United States and even the United Kingdom as well, with the surprise success of the legendary Osibisa's Afro-rock in the 1970's. Other high life musicians who broke into the limelight in the 1970's were Nana Amapadu and the African Brothers, The City Boys, C.K. Mann, the Wulomei group, amongst others. 

By the 1990's, a new generation of artists discovered Hip Life with Reggie Rockstone, a Ghanaian artist who was immersed with hip hop in the United States being it's first pioneer. Hip Life was hip hop in the Ghanaian local dialect which was backed by the traditional high life. 

Da Hammer of The Last Two label unveiled artists like Obrafour, Tinny, and Ex-Doe who raised high the hip life banner. Reggie Rockstone, who is known as the father of hip life incited hip hop into the Ghanaian music scene in the late 1990's and musicians like Ball J, Jayso, Sarkodie, Eno Barony, EL, Ayibe Edem and more strolling in it's path. Another genre of music was introduced in the late 2000's dubbed Afro Beats which is mostly referred to as Afro Pop and singers like Fuse ODG and 4x4 popularized it throughout the country and beyond.

 A band of brothers emerged in the early 2020's and brought with them a new style and genre of music known as Asakaa (meaning “to talk” in the Akan language but turned backwards “Kasa”). These young artists consisting of Jay Bahd, Kwaku DMC, Reggie, O'Kenneth, City Boy, Braa Benk, Thywill, Skyface SDW, amongst many others thrilled not only Ghana and Africa with their new genre of music but the whole world as well. 

Asakaa is basically United Kingdom and United States drill beats which are blended with the local Akan dialect and English and accompanied with their talent and  melodious way of bringing out music, Asakaa is now the new and main genre of music in the country. Many other artists like Ypee, Black Sherif, Yaw Tog, Kweku Flick, Kofi Jamar, and many others have sold out Asakaa music both locally and internationally.