What future for African music and culture

Courtesy of Amplify Africa

African music has gradually made inroads into the American music market, with world music, which includes AfrobeatsK-pop and more – experiencing the fastest growth compared to other genres according to Luminate 2023 Year-End Report which was released last week. The overall package saw a 26.2% increase in on-demand audio streams in the United States, making a total of 5.7 billion for the year.

Throughout the 2020s, until now, heavyweights like Burna Boy, Wizkid And Davido headlined stadiums, emerging superstars like Themes And CKYes have gained radio hits and dazzling acts like Rema And Tyla having marked Billboard Hot 100 the 10 best hits. Next month, the Recording Academy will present an award to best African music show category for the first time, after the American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards began awarding their own Afrobeats Awards. And although genres like Nigeria’s afrobeats and South Africa’s amapiano have emerged from the African continent, there is still a long way to go for them to be fully integrated into the mainstream market.

About 15 music executives from LVRN, YouTube, Spotify, COLORSxSTUDIOS and more, along with creatives including filmmakers and music producers, gathered last Friday at Joy Studios Miami, Florida to discuss the future of African music and culture during a “Road to AFRICA» Roundtable hosted by the media and entertainment brand Amplify Africa. SKN The Divine also performed after the hour-and-a-half-long chat, including the first live performance of his single “OH MY GOD.”

The roundtable was the first pop-up event organized by Amplify Africa this year ahead of its fourth annual edition. AFRICAa multi-day conference and celebration of African culture, innovation and entrepreneurship hosted in Los Angeles that features panels discussing ways to achieve the brand’s goal of uniting the world. Global Black Diaspora as well as immersive experiences, from an all-black market to the AfroBall gala.

Amplify Africa CEO/Co-Founder Dami Kujembola started the conversation by asking about the challenges faced by African artists who wish to break through and prosper in international markets. Other participants included: Timi AdeyebaCOO/co-founder of Amplify Africa; Buku Ibraheemworld music and culture brand marketing director at Beats by Dre; Adam McFarlandhead of the Black Music and Culture program at YouTube; Tunde Balogunpresident/co-founder of LVRN; Jonah WeberCEO of COLORSxSTUDIOS; Ade O’Adesinafilm producer and director; Taylor Websterhead of music publicity at Metro PR; Len Brownexecutive, awards at the Recording Academy; Heran MamoR&B/hip-hop journalist at Billboard; Prophet EJ Newtonsinger-songwriter and founder/senior pastor of Great Grace Miami; Walshy FireDJ/producer and member of Major Lazer; Abiola Oké, CEO/Founder of Adisa Consultants; And Kimmy Summersartist partnerships are top of mind at Spotify.

Ibraheem cited “translating their cultural impact to people who are not part of the culture.” She argued that brands tend to focus on numbers, from artists’ followers on Instagram to their engagement on TikTok, and by featuring African artists for major marketing campaigns, she proves that their “impact cultural trumps that.” We can’t necessarily put a number on that. »

“The hardest thing is to draw a linear line between impact and culture, because it’s not a linear line,” McFarland added. “It makes sense to us because it is a lived experience and we are able to quantify it based on what we see. But if it’s not your lived experience and you don’t see it, then you can’t quantify it.

Ibraheem led the launch of the Beats x AMBUSH 2020 campaign and introduced Burna Boy as the lead talent of Yoon Ahn, Korean-American fashion designer and founder/creative director of Tokyo-inspired streetwear brand AMBUSH. “If I can prove to the company that not only can (artists) get attention, but they can help us move units, then that gives them the opportunity to do bigger launches,” he said. she declared.

She also explained how brand partnerships should work in favor of both parties. The November 2020 launch of Burna’s Beats x AMBUSH campaign came three months after the release of his fifth studio album. Twice as big, and the clip highlighted the track “Way Too Big”. “As a marketer, how do you actually collaborate with talent and have them become ambassadors for your brand? ” she said, adding that it’s more attractive for brands to “present themselves as an active participant” in an artist’s ecosystem, such as helping them launch their albums, “rather than simply praising them.”

Some executives have compared the rather slow recognition of Afrobeats in the United States to the country’s gradual acceptance of one of its homegrown genres: hip-hop. Born in the 1970s among black, Latino and Caribbean youth in inner-city New York, hip-hop has grown from a cultural movement to a commercially successful global phenomenon. In 2017, hip-hop became the most dominant gender in the United States for the first time since Nielsen Music began tracking its sales in 1991. Hip-hop, which notably celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, maintained its leading position #1 genre in the United States since then. Similar to the rise of hip-hop, Afrobeats are steadily gaining traction among the global black diaspora, and it’s only a matter of time before mainstream (read: white) audiences catch on fully taken into account.

“It took a long time for America to give hip-hop the money it was supposed to get. Now, hip-hop artists are cashing in on it. So I think it’s up to us (to be) a little patient, but also to move forward and know that we’re going to have to open some doors,” said Balogun, whose company manages stars of the Grammy-nominated R&B Summer walker And 6 missing as well as internationally renowned Nigerian artists like Davido And Spinall. “I tell my friends, my people at labels and investment companies, like, ‘Yo, you almost have to be willing to lose money to enter a new market and be the first and really set the foot on the ground, because you’ll have to try some things that others don’t.

COLORSxSTUDIOS, the Germany-based music performance platform, has invested in the continent by hiring an entirely local team to work on several productions in Nigeria. This included OxladeThe viral performance “KU LO SA” in 2022 which played a pivotal role in turning the song into a global hit, later receiving a remix from Camila Cabello. Oxlade already said rolling stone that his COLORS shoot was originally supposed to take place at his main studio in Berlin, but due to visa issues he was unable to travel. COLORS then flew to Lagos to shoot him and Ayra Starr, Victory, DBN Gogo, BNXN and much more as part of its partnership with Spotify RADAR Africa, which aims to help African artists get discovered around the world and expand their audiences outside of their home markets. In his COLORS THREE SIXTY FM episodeOxlade showed immense gratitude to the COLORSxSTUDIOS team — especially the sound engineer Paul Lorton, whom he then called on to mix the studio version of “KU LO SA” — for having “taken the time to fly to Nigeria to come and film Afrobeats artists”. We Nigerians are eternally grateful for putting us on the map.

Weber explained during the “Road to AFRICON” panel that one of the main reasons COLORS worked with Spotify to spotlight African artists on their native continent was to avoid visa issues, like the one encountered by Oxlade.

“Our studio, as many of you know, is in Berlin and we have pop-up studios. But for us, it was always, “Okay, how can we be where things are happening?” “One of the things we believe in is that you just have to be where African music is,” he said, praising the platform’s efforts to produce more performances “on the ground.” . “I think our responsibility is: ‘Do we bring our own team or do we work with local talent?’ How to make them responsible? How does the money stay there? How do the rights stay there? This is when we think about economic sustainability and making (Africa) less dependent on other continents. It’s definitely something we’ve always tried to engage in. For example, in Lagos, we had an entire Nigerian crew. In Kenya, it was a full Kenyan crew. We don’t need to talk about it, we just need to do it. And I think if more do that, more money will stay in local centers and more investment will go into creativity.

Continuing to develop the infrastructure of the local African music industry until it is “self-sufficient,” Adeyeba said, remains a long-term goal.

“The problem is that we are asking the European, American and Western world to welcome us. Can we build Africa to the point where an industry that has so much power and financial resources first goes to an artist like Burna Boy?” request Adesinewho has helped artists elevate their storytelling through visual mediums and is recognized as a consultant on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. “Africa is going to get even bigger if we don’t beg the people on this side to welcome us. It’s going to happen.”