Indigenous and Indigenised Yoruba Popular Music

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to clarify the difference between indigenous and indigenised Yoruba popular music. It is an open secret that African cultures suffered and are still suffering from this systemic erosion through neo-colonialism and media imperialism such that most Africans find it difficult differentiating what are indigenous African cultures and the indigenised cultures. Considering the power and reach of popular music generally, there is a need to differentiate between those African indigenous music genres and those ones borrowed, forced upon but already indigenised. The Yoruba people of South West Nigeria are one of the prominent tribes on the African continent who are blessed with music genres such as apala, sakara, fuji, juju, were, awurebe and dadakuada that are indigenous to them and those from abroad that they have indigenised such as hip hop, Afrobeat, religious music, medley R & B and jazz. Consequently, this chapter examines the Yoruba music concepts, origins, composition techniques and instruments. Essentially, the chapter adopted qualitative approach relying on secondary data from archival materials. It is hoped that this chapter will be able to contribute to scholarship and proper understanding of African indigenous popular music.KeywordsIndigenous Yoruba popular musicIndigenised Yoruba popular musicGlobalisationCultural imperialismColonisation