How Afrobeats has become an unstoppable musical force in Nigeria.
By The Nigerian Tribune.
The music of Nigerian afrobeats, once mostly dismissed as a localised genre, has become the biggest genre in the country, according to The Voice of Nigeria’s head of music, Tunde Kazeem.
The musician told NTA on Tuesday that there are more acts in the genre today than in the past 15 years.
“This is a very new music that is in the making to come out of the traditional music of the North Atlantic,” Kazeem said.
“We are seeing a lot of new releases, we have heard some of their new music as well,” he added.
Kazeem said Afrobeats is the major Nigerian music genre.
“If you are an afrobeats lover, you need to have them (the style). We have other genres, like our popular music genre, ‘uwa’ but there are few genres on the market that dominate the market,” he added.
Kazeem also said he does not know when the genre’s popularity will peak.
“This is the first trend that I know of that has gone out of the fashion of only being used to cater to the elite and having a specific niche. I also know that it can be a huge market. But I am not sure of its peak,” the musician said.
According to Kazeem, afrobeats has gone global.
“Afrobeats has become global. We hear it in other countries as well, and it can become a global market,” he said.
Kazeem said the Nigerian music industry is on the right track in terms of becoming the No.1 music industry in the world.
“The industry is heading in the right direction. We are trying to open up the market. We are educating people on what is an afrobeats style. Now, people get to see afrobeats because of its sound,”
