On March 29, 2022, the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Chart went live, making it the first-ever United States chart for Afrobeats music. Billboard partnered with music festival and global Afrobeats brand Afro Nation to launch this endeavour.
The chart ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in America, based on a weighted formula incorporating official streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers. All these are coming on the heels of the biggest success stories of Afrobeats sounds in this young decade, they include songs like Wizkid‘s “Essence” featuring Tems, CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” and Fireboy DML‘s “Peru.”
Afrobeats has indeed grown tremendously as a genre, in not just America but the whole wide world and Afrobeats sounds and influences have significantly grown in the U.S. market throughout the 2010s, through artists such as Beyoncé and Drake. According to Afro Nation founder, co-head of UTA London and Event Horizon founder Obi Asika, asserted “The last decade has seen Afrobeats explode into a worldwide phenomenon, influencing culture and fashion across the globe and I am humbled to have made a contribution to growing the genre alongside many talented, passionate people.”
He further added that “There is still so much more potential within the scene and the community that has grown around it and I believe it is vital that with Billboard we now have a U.S. chart that reflects this growth and provides a platform for emerging artists from every continent to showcase their talent to new audiences.”
Obi Asika is no stranger to the game, known for his involvement in the growth of Nigeria’s music industry, as the founder and CEO of Storm 360, an indigenous music label that spawned entertainers such as Naeto C, Ikechukwu, Sasha P, General Pype, L.O.S., Ms Jaie, Tosin Martins, and Yung 6ix. Today we can boast of giants like Burna Boy, star boys like Wizkid, young champs like Fireboy DML, Ckay, Tems, Rema, BNXN, Omah Lay, Ayra Starr, Oxlade, Ruger and baddest boys like Davido and Skiibii.
All these speak clearly of the eminence of Afrobeats or should I say Afrobeat. This movement has come a long way and there is a need to shed some light on it. But before I proceed, I will love to define these genres of music, Afrobeat and Afrobeats.
What is Afrobeat?
According to Wikipedia, Afrobeat is a music genre that involves the combination of elements of West African musical styles such as fuji music and highlife with American jazz and later soul and funk influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion. The term was coined in the 1960s by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who is responsible for pioneering and popularizing the style both within and outside Nigeria and his former drummer, Tony Allen who helped to define the hard-driving rhythm of Afrobeat.
What is Afrobeats?
According to Wikipedia, Afrobeats also known as Afro-pop, or styled as Afro-fusion, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing out of Ghana and Nigeria. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the ‘afrobeats’ umbrella.
Afrobeats is very often conflated with and referred to as Afrobeat. However, these are two distinct and different sounds and are not the same. Afrobeat is a genre that developed in the 1960s and 1970s, taking influences from Fuji music and Highlife, mixed in with American jazz and funk. While Afrobeats is a sound originating in West Africa in the 21st century, one that takes in diverse influences and is an eclectic combination or a loose affiliation of popular music that draws on African and Western music genres such as highlife, hip hop, house, jùjú, ndombolo, R&B and soca.
The Director of Black Music Culture YouTube, Tuma Basa clarified this similarity. In his words, he postulated “Some have decided that Afrobeats without an (s) singular is designated to Fela and that generation, that this new sound is called Afrobeats. People who argue that differentiation, do pay homage to the previous sound and the influence of the sound.”
The idea of Afrobeats is different streams of consciousness tied to one. The history of Nigerian music has long existed before the music revolution of Fela. A lot of native genres like jùjú, highlife, ogene, fuji and apala all thrived in many parts of the country with some or most areas even having and still do, to this day indigenous sounds riding the music conversation there.
Many music aficionados argue that Fela is the original poster child for African popular music and the zenith of African music. Over the years Nigerian music evolved with hip-hop and R&B influencing heavily the Nigerian music scene of the late 90s and early 2000s. Though African sounds enjoyed global superstardom in the early 2000s through Francophone music stars, largely to the ‘Awilo’ craze.
The mid to late 2000s set the pace for Nigerian pop sound and the music dynamics we celebrate today and four albums made it possible. They include Timaya’s True Story, 9ice’s Gongo Aso, D’banj’s The Entertainer and Wande Coal’s Mushin 2 Mohits. These albums and artists enabled the transatlantic commission of Afrobeats beyond. This provided an opportunity for the then ‘New Kids On The Bloc’ to explore and experiment with these revolutionary sounds. The result was the Nigerian golden age of hip-hop, the exportation of our sound to the world and the 2010 music generation which still reigns supreme today.
Many factors propelled the spread of Afrobeats to the world, particularly in Europe which is credited to first and second-generation immigrants who have a strong sense of belonging to their African roots. British Ghanaian DJ Abrantee is largely credited as the one who coined the name ‘Afrobeats’ which many have come to embrace. Although this has not been accepted by some quarters mainly to the fact that it was not named by home-based Africans, the fear of being pigeonholed into one genre of music. But all these coupled with the need to create an identity for these sounds birthed the genre Afrobeats.
This was needed for sake of marketing, profitability, cultural appreciation of Africans across boards and other given factors. So, in essence, Afrobeats is an umbrella term for a variety of sounds from Africa though some industry stakeholders would argue that Africa is more than Afrobeats and should not be pigeonholed in one given genre. But this is beneficial to us Africans because the pillars of capitalism now have a great interest in African music and we have to seize this moment.
So far, this arrangement has been good and the industry is growing. The recent move by Billboard to create a chart for Afrobeats has a lot of positive and negative sides to it.
Firstly, this is a big nod to the journey of Afrobeats and a precursor to where it can go from here. This all shows that African music is profitable and American capitalism can juice it to its fullest potential. Money can be made from it though it is still not a primary genre yet which I believe is the dream of this noble movement.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. Recently released a report for the global recorded music revenues. The report stated that the recorded music industry revenue globally grew to US$25.9 billion, paid subscription streaming revenue heightened to 21.9% which is US$12.3 billion in value and the total streaming including paid subscription and advertising supported grew by 24.3%.
This only means one thing the internet, particularly music streaming is the sole reason why the music industry is back to its glory. Music streaming accounts for 60% of the global music industry revenues. Social media has now become the most potent marketing tool in music. It has helped many Afrobeats songs to thrive like Finesse, Love Nwantiti (ah ah ah), Peru Remix and many others.
This move by Billboard is great and quite exciting but it should be tailored diligently to the areas that matter. We should always look to history for pointers to decide what is right, for instance, what did the UK Afrobeats chart do for us, not much really.
But critically we have to focus on bigger issues like paying attention to our charts. We have to brace ourselves for the eventual shift from Afrobeats to other sounds by America which they are no stranger to in the scheme of things. A time will come when Afrobeats will get to the level of a primary genre where the investments and interest will be bigger and enable artists to have a dependable stake to hold onto in their sojourn of bloom.
Afrobeats is definitely, the fastest rising genre of music in America and anything is indeed possible for artists, stakeholders and other interested parties. So, there is a clear need to properly build and structure our industry to accelerate our rave accurately.
We should not let our excitement about the Billboard Afrobeats chart blind us from the real goal. Many big Nigerian acts don’t make the majority of their music revenues from Nigeria due to the affordability of data, internet penetration and music consumption habits.
This chart could be good for the optics, music tracking, revenue endeavours, bragging rights and marketability but the problem is that the chart could be another Apple music chart, which make no mistake is a force to reckon with, all thanks to the brand called Apple.
Secondly, the Apple music chart was among the first music charts to launch in Nigeria and many have a predilection for it a lot.
Thirdly, the music chart blew up during the lockdown and many artists took great advantage of it. This music chart is one of the highest-paid musical charts in Nigeria. Though some critics feel it is a disservice to African music to pigeonhole all its melodious sounds into one chart, the ‘Afrobeats’ chart and it’s not fair in actuality.
There is a need for a proper dichotomy to make this work. America has over time had problems understanding music from small demographics and we, in all honesty, can’t have that in Afrobeats.