Even as Afrobeat continues to cross international waters and become a global phenomenon, it has taken a back seat for Nigerian artists as they have popularized Amapiano, which has become the face of many raves, clubs, and the Nigerian music industry.
Why Nigerian Artists Popularizing Amapiano Should Be Criticized
The growth of Afrobeat should signal an opportunity for Nigerian artists to explore and make It the country’s major genre; instead, Amapiano has taken over every dancehall in the country. With raves even inviting Amapiano artists to perform, and with Nigerian artists encouraged to explore genres, putting Amapiano over Afrobeat can only be a disadvantage to Afrobeats. Here’s how:
- Forced Spotlight Sharing
At a time when Afrobeats is enjoying a global spotlight and audience, Nigerian artists instead choosing to platform “Afropiano,” or “Amapiano,” takes away from the spotlight that should be on Afrobeats. The international spotlight then shifts from just Afrobeat and Nigerian artists who have popularized African sounds to the South African genre.
- Cultural Friction
Due to the friction between Nigeria and South Africa, Nigerian artists’ insistence on using Amapiano causes further friction. As these artists are accused of cultural appropriation and erasure of the indigenous Amapiano artists, in some cases, the South African sound becomes attributed to Nigeria by the global audience, and Nigerian artists enjoy.
- Identity Loss
When Nigerian mainstream artists widely incorporate South African log drums and Amapiano cadences, it blurs the sonic boundaries of what is considered “Afrobeats,” making it harder for the original West African sound to maintain a distinct, recognizable global identity.
- Reduction of Indigenous Innovation
Nigerian artists choosing to lean into making music using a foreign sound reduces the chances of indigenous innovation by Nigerian artists. Outside of Afrobeats, other Nigerian sounds like highlife or Fuji are forced to take a backseat. For sounds that need domestic support to thrive, the inclusion of Amapiano as one of the bigger genres explored by Nigerian artists is detrimental to other Nigerian musicians.
Afrobeat’s Global Domination
Afrobeats and Amapiano operate as two massive, intertwined engines of the global African music takeover. Rather than a hostile clash, the “rivalry” is a vibrant, collaborative battle for global streaming dominance, charts, and cultural influence. Nigerian artists taking part in the globalization of Amapiano by creating music with the sound and allowing it to infiltrate Nigerian music spaces in a way that forces Afrobeat to take a backseat is detrimental to the global domination of Afrobeats.
What do we think?
Although the fusion between Afrobeats and Amapiano, titled “Afropiano,” is an exciting genre for African music, Amapiano taking precedence over Afrobeat and other Nigerian sounds is something that should not be encouraged by Nigerian artists. Instead of leaning into the Amapiano sound, these artists could equally pay attention to other sounds in Nigeria and develop a way to infuse them into the globalization of Afrobeat.
