Reimaging and re-inventing Ghanaian highlife music for contemporary relevance and national development
The project focused on Ghanaian highlife music, the most popular musical style from Ghana which some people believe is in decline because of competing genres and changing generational preferences. It emerged in the early 20th century along the coastal areas in Ghana where it synthesized indigenous musical resources with Western musical elements (Collins, 1985; Plageman, 2013; Shipley, 2012). Ghanaian highlife music was categorized into brass, guitar and dance bands. However, over the years, several styles have sprouted from highlife music including burger highlife, hiplife, afrobeat(s). Nevertheless, due to its sociological underpinnings and historical origins in the colonial period, the use of the term highlife itself has been problematic in contemporary times, hence requiring re-imagining. The focus and selection of Highlife music for this project was based on three factors:
1. Highlife music represents Ghana’s national identity. For instance, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president used highlife music in his campaign for Ghana’s independence
2. Highlife music has influenced other music genres and the outcome include gospel highlife, choral highlife and reggae highlife.
3. Highlife music overlaps with the various sub-disciplines and ensembles in the Department of Music.