A Case Study of Highlife Music - Analytical Approaches to World Music

and re-interpretation contingent on prevailing forces of change, generationalmodification and geographical spread. The various peripheral levels of re-creation areshown in different colors in the diagram; each color depicts the changing form of thegenre relative to the core. In the case of Highlife, E.T. Mensah’s dance band Highlifeincarnation created in the 1950s and by extension Ghanaian Highlife, could be taken tobe the core of the West African Highlife against which backdrop, other re-creations andtransformations of the genre can be measured in artistic and cultural terms. The earlierproto-types (like Kokoma, Osibisaaba, Agidigbo, Gumbey and Odonson) bear a doubletoga of being the forerunners of the dance band format alluded to in modern terms as‘original’ or ‘classical’ Highlife, and being at the same time, a ‘poor man’s’ versions ofthe classical Highlife. Both the core and the various peripheral levels can be studiedseparately and also in relation to the core.3. Historical and Contemporary ApproachAfrican popular music scene both in the past and in the present, has been on thereceiving end of various foreign socio-musical influences which greatly affect thestability and definitive framework of popular music traditions. Consequently, managingsocio-musical changes on the African continent has been a major challenge because ofthe rapidity of these changes which have been accelerated in this age of ICT andglobalization. Some of these changes and their effects on musical developments havebeen shown in our graphic historical representation of Highlife in Ghana and Nigeriaearlier on. To understand, interpret and situate these changes within socio-musical andhistorical contexts, I suggest that African popular music genres be studiedsynchronically (i.e. as a slice of time in history) and diachronically (along a historicalcontinuum) as I deed in my research on Highlife. In this case, developmental trends andchanges can be situated in molds and then studied within particular socio-historicalcontexts as well as along a historical path. Because of the social and technologicalupheavals of the 21 st century, African popular music forms are best studied using ahistorical and contemporary approach. In each case, the social and aesthetic benchmarksfor assessment will be based on historical specificity and historical relativity.20