Afrobeat is a genre created in the late 1960s by the Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti. He fused traditional West African rhythms (notably Yoruba) and the folk style of highlife with American jazz, funk, and soul, giving rise to a powerful, hypnotic sound.
The hallmarks of afrobeat are long compositions (often over 10–15 minutes), multilayered percussion, “swaying” bass and guitar parts, a powerful brass section, and improvisation. Fela Kuti used music as a weapon of social and political protest against corruption and injustice. Afrobeat had an enormous influence on world music and still inspires new generations (modern “afrobeats” is a separate pop current). It is music in which rhythmic drive is inseparably joined to the power of the civic word.
