Many countries have had a fair share of artists dominating the music industry; that said, countries within Africa have had a hard time entering the limelight. That isn’t to say African artists haven’t had any influence within the music industry. As a matter of fact, African musical influences can be found in various music genres going back decades. Music genres like blues, jazz, samba, and rumba all have ties to African traditions that enslaved Africans carried to the New World.
Global music, like rock, pop, and funk, has also been impacted by African musical influences. Unfortunately, despite the amount of influence African traditions have in the industry, African artists have had a hard time achieving mainstream success. Music composition and production is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, especially if the artist has dreams to make it big. The lack of opportunity within African countries has been the largest hurdle to traditionally launching successful artists.
Despite the talent being there, an artist would need to have the necessary connections to make it far enough for labels to even acknowledge them. Thankfully, the rise of the internet and social media has radically changed the landscape of the music industry. While music labels continue to be a dominating force, in the current year, it has become even easier for individual artists to reach global audiences. Social media apps like TikTok have helped pave the way to successful careers for a multitude of independent artists of all colors.
Additionally, with how primed global Western audiences are to African music, from collaborations to fusion genres, new audiences would be familiar enough to want to explore the multutude of African artists that are already out there.
