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Hear an audio clip
from Rex Lawson’s “Bere Bote” |
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Highlife music originated in Ghana and became Western
Africa's first popular music trend. The palm wine
guitar tradition of Nigeria's Ibo musicians evolved
easily into the guitar-based highlife sound. The
moniker “highlife” is a nod to African
high society, the early adopters and patrons of
the sound, which Africanized
the European-influenced
music of society
bands and military marching bands.
Bobby Benson was one of the first Nigerian highlife
stars, forming his band in Lagos in 1947. Other
popular highlife artists include "Cardinal"
Rex Lawson, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and The
Oriental Brothers.
Highlife suffered a decline in the late 1960s and
'70s. As the Nigerian civil war raged, the predominantly
Ibo highlife musicians left the city of Lagos. While
highlife music has never regained the popularity
it once had, contemporary musicians like Solex Band
International are attempting to put it back on the
map. |
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