13 April 2016 11:22
London has long been one of the most influential pop culture centers around the world, especially in the fashion and music . He had everything from Sex Pistols to the Caribbean rhythms of the Notting Hill Carnival, to the current scene grime . Pop London, now he is going to get rich decidedly African inflection with the launch of the first radio afrobeats of the United Kingdom.
On March 28, Beat FM, a popular radio station in Lagos, it began broadcasting on the frequency of a community radio in North London. Will become the gateway all’afrobeats, the rhythms and hip-hop influences of music they listen to young Africans in cities like Accra, Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam and Lagos.
Not so long ago such an idea would have seemed too ambitious. But the achievements of stars like the Nigerians Tiwa Savage and Wizkid, Ghanaians Stonebwoy and Sarkodie, South African and Tanzanian Cassper Nyovest Diamond Platnumz, begin to resonate in the nightclubs of London, overlooking the edge of radio playlists across the UK .
According to Chris Ubosi, CEO of Megalectrics, the parent company of Beat Fm, Beat Fm London will be a platform for the growing market of African music: “We want to put on the same footing as the other genres,” he said . “It must enter the mainstream and not just be relegated to particular contexts.” Ubosi already provides for the expansion of the Beat Fm brand in North America.
The African music was not always so popular commercially. Fifteen years ago, after being ignored for the eighties and nineties, for the African record labels began a slow revival. In the absence of adequate infrastructure and rampant piracy artists struggled to earn a living and profits were insignificant. With economic growth in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, it has emerged a new desire for forms of local entertainment.
This renewed confidence, especially widespread among younger Africans who live in big cities, was led by growth Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. Nollywood then has inspired and influenced film industries across the continent. The music industry has followed the example of cinema.
Even if record sales have collapsed as elsewhere in the world, with the growth of local economies a greater number of African artists have been able to earn thanks to the live concerts and started to get support from large companies, the sector and not. Local phone companies like Mtn and Globacom have been particularly aggressive in trying to differentiate themselves through sponsorship deals of artists and musical productions. Today it is quite common to hear afrobeats songs as ring tones when calling a Nigerian phone. Phone companies have also supported several streaming services and music downloads.
According Demola Ogundele, founder of Notjustok, one of the first blogs dedicated all’afrobeats, digital distribution is helping to open the African market, especially thanks to collaborations with telephone and technology companies. As a result, it is expected that by 2017 the financial return of the digital market will be ten times higher than the physical market.
Another sign of the African music sector growth is the coming into Sony Music scene. In February of 2016 the music giant has opened an office in Lagos with the aim to exploit a growing trend: according to estimates the market for music consumption in 2015 in Nigeria is around 43 million dollars.
The African artists have not only the dream of tearing collaborations with major international stars, with afrobeats may try to enter the market. On this front, progress has been remarkable. One of Austin, Texas, is that of The Fader biggest stages of the music festival South By South West (SXSW) on which he performed the Nigerian Davido.
The exhibition of Davido testament to the growing popularity and importance of African music. Of course it is not a novelty. This latest wave of African music began to appear in the US with African Queen 2face Idibia, included in the soundtrack of Phat Girlz , films of 2006 with M0′Nique. Oliver Twist , single of the pop star Nigerian D’banj released in 2012, had made an appearance in the rankings in nine European countries, and the UK has even entered the top ten.
It is not the afrobeat of our fathers
the afrobeats has its critics. First generates a confusion with “afrobeat”, jazz genre afro-funk created by Fela Kuti in the seventies. The musical style of the modern afrobeats – an electronic hip-hop that makes extensive use of audio manipulation with catchy tracks disposable is a typical sound of Millennials African – is ideal for rotating in whirling rhythms on local radio and for sharing on YouTube. Fela’s music, with its important social messages, in this respect could not be further from dall’afrobeats. That’s why for some combine the two genres bordering on heresy. However the afrobeats today dominates in clubs and radio frequencies and last year Kenyans musicians protested because they believe their music on the radio was obscured by the presence of the Nigerian.
According to Rab Bakari, a pioneer of hip-hop ghanano-American and former manager of a US record company that now promotes African musicians, the most ambitious exponents dell’afrobeats are convinced that they have “reached the limit “and that it had already” passed “the local markets.
However, it is difficult for a musical genre will spread without having a constant presence on the radio. In the UK, BBC Radio 1Xtra and Radio Capital Xtra (two specialized stations in the black music) have created playlists afrobeats, but it is said that this kind is then transmitted from their most widespread sisters stations, and can then add a much wider.
Ivor Etienne, chief executive of Beat Fm London, might be best placed to help the afrobeats to enter the mainstream, at least in the UK. In the nineties, Etienne drove Choice Fm, the first station of the capital briannica community dedicated to black music. The launch of Choice Fm coincided with the rise of reggae dancehall and saw the creation of international stars such as Shaggy and Shabba Ranks.
To enter the international markets will require a lot of work from the bottom. Perhaps a radio station is not enough to conquer the huge and diversified US market, the real target of the majority of African artists.
Phiona Okumu, the director of AfriPop, an online magazine dedicated to pop culture in Africa, suggests that the Internet, the key tool in the development of local industries, could come in handy in this case. “The Internet is the great leveler: thanks to the network anyone willing to disappear in the rabbit burrows that are SoundCloud and YouTube has the opportunity to discover everything the algorithm decides to scaraventargli on him.”
Of course the artists are ready to break the afrobeats on the global music scene, especially at a time when the dominance of electronic dance music (Edm) might begin to fade. This is at least what they think industry observers as Okumu of AfriPop. A radio station that has the aim of presenting the afrobeats as a kind of foreground and no longer niche can facilitate this process. And Beat Fm London will be an excellent tool to assess their potential, in part because the London market and more generally in the UK is the most influential market in the world in the dictate of pop culture fads. Beat Fm London will probably not be a magic platform that will bring African artists to win a slew of Grammy but as Ubosi says, is “a step in the right direction.”
(Translation by Giusy Muzzopappa)
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