AFROBEAT means different things to different people. This is the Afrobeat alphabet and what I think it means. I know I have been giving ya'll assignment and you have been using style to dodge by not leaving comments. But y'all need to get involved. What is AFROBEAT to you? See the rest of the assignment in the original post.
Afrobeat is AFRICA
Afrobeat is BOLD, BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL
Afrobeat is a CULTURE not just a LIFESTYLE
Afrobeat is DRUMS and DANCE
Afrobeat is ECLECTIC AND ECCENTRIC EDUCATION
Afrobeat is FELA ANIKULAPO-KUTI; Afrobeat is FIRE and FUNK
Afrobeat is GROOVE, GRASSROOT AND GOOD GOVERNMENT
Afrobeat is HIGHLIFE
Afrobeat is INTERNATIONAL
Afrobeat is from the JUNGLE JAZZ
Afrobeat is KALAKUTA REPUBLIC
Afrobeat is a LEGACY and LANGUAGE about LIFE in LAGOS
Afrobeat is not just MUSIC for the MASSES but a MOVEMENT of thePEOPLE (M.O.P)
Afrobeat is NIGERIA
Afrobeat is OJUELEGBA STRAIGHT
Afrobeat is POWER, and the POLITICS of the POOR
Afrobeat is the QUEENS of the SHRINE who shake to the beat
Afrobeat is RHYTHM
Afrobeat is SUFFERING and SMILING SORROWS AWAY to the SOUNDS of the SAXOPHONE
Afrobeat is about TRUTH and TRADITION
Afrobeat is huge part of the UNDERGROUND CULTURE of AMERICA...Will it go mainstream?
Afrobeat is VIBRATION
Afrobeat is WISDOM (not from the weed) and WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO BE
Afrobeat is 'X-OTIC'
Afrobeat is YABIS GALORE
Afrobeat is ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CORRUPTION IN LEADERSHIP & SOCIETY
You want to become an Afrobeat student? Here is Fela's Incomplete Discography which you can find in you music store or download. You should also check these books out at your local University's library or on Amazon (some are thesis that are available at individual universities)
Fela: Life And Times Of An African by Michael Veal
Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway by Trevor Schoonmaker
Arrest The Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (African Expressive Cultures) by Tejumola Olaniyan.
Femi Bankole Osunla: My Black President: 23 Years With Fela Anikulapo Kuti by Fela Kuti and Femi Bankole Osunla
Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti by Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Study of the Music and Social Criticism of African Musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music) by Niyi Coker
For Women and the Nation: FUNMILAYO RANSOME-KUTI OF NIGERIA by Cheryl Johnson-Odim and Nina Emma Mba
Creativity and protest in popular culture: The political music of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Revolutionary monographs on culture and society in Africa) by Iyorchia D Ayu
Use of music to create political awareness and mobilization: A case study of two Nigerian musicians (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Sonny Okosun) by Joseph Amali Shekwo
Afrobeat: Fela and the Imagined Continent by Sola Olorunyomi
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4 comments:
We wanna leave comments but you dont post them.
i work for michael veal! and he gave me a copy of that book last year...i'm SO special!
i'm gonna show my support for this compulsory Felabration as your sister (G LOVED watching the videos, by the way): Afrobeat, to me, means brutal honesty and food for thought. It also means lies and incredibly arrogant mysogynism. But the greatest men are usually also the greatest hypocrites, and I can forgive Fela for that. It's a beat that carries your soul to heights of ecstacy, while reminding you of who you are, your duty to remember your past and protect your future.
Afrobeat is cycle of life. It is the return to the Homeland of music that was forcibly taken from here to ultimately be given an American sound, then returned to Mama Africa for rebirth. Afrobeat is pleasure and pain, love and hate, smiles and tears, leaves and thorns. It's us.
@Singto... thank you that 10 over 10 for you
@Anonymous.... Actually I saved your This Day Comment for next week. It will get lost in my Felabration week.
@Anonymous asking for Wedding website... I already told you... NO MORE WEDDING WEBSITES until next season. I have a surprise though but if you keep asking, I won't give it to you...lol
damn, aba boy! i feel what you're saying, but one day you have to wake up and smell the akpu: you have to appreciate the complexity of the sounds in Fela's orchestra, and then the beauty will come. Try to pick out the layers: of the drums, the trumpets, the sax...it's impossible to hear them all, of course, but once you can pick 'em out, then weave them together in your consciousness, you'll realize how amazingly talented those musicians are/were. with that comes appreciation and, before long, love :).
consider that a free lesson (and don't hate me for displaying ITK levels...i just really love Fela's music.)
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