Amapiano music and a psychoacoustic approach to analysis through the Ski-hill graph

Abstract

Local artists in African countries' use of computer technology to produce work is inevitable. The effect of popular commercial music on traditional musicians increases the genuine possibility of further extinction of local music, particularly in regional areas. The importance of preserving this music is underacknowledged as, like language, music is an essential form of communication and part of a person's identity. New developments can cast shadows over everyday music during modernisation, and young people seek new sounds. For others, especially those who have witnessed the slow disappearance of cultural practices unique to regions, the loss and damage are akin to whitewashing and theft. In many parts of the world, scholars and locals are scrambling to preserve music and transmit accurate cultural heritage accounts for future generations. Amapiano music, like so much music of the Nigerian diaspora, owes its traditional heritage to the ancient roots of the Igbo people of Nigeria. Through the psychoacoustic approach of mathematical music theory of the Ski-hill graph (Cohn, 2020), it is now possible to produce accurate, inclusive, and ethical representations of Amapiano and traditional Igbo music.