African popular music, also called Afropop, Afro-pop, or African pop, includes any music from Africa that uses Western instruments like the guitar, piano, or trumpet. Afropop mixes African traditional music with Western pop music. It uses African rhythms and melodies along with Western instruments and ways of making music.
Afrobeats is a term used to describe a type of popular music that comes from West Africa and the diaspora. It started in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK during the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is not a single style of music but a way to describe the mix of sounds from Nigeria and Ghana.
Afrobeat, also called Afrofunk, is a type of music from West Africa. It mixes sounds from Nigerian music, like Yoruba music, and Ghanaian music, like highlife, with American styles such as funk, jazz, and soul. This music style uses strong, repeated singing, complicated rhythms, and lots of drumming.
UK drill is a type of music that comes from the South London area of Brixton and began in 2012. It sounds different from Chicago drill music but shares some similar styles. UK drill combines elements of road rap, a type of gangsta rap that was popular in the UK before drill music existed.
Mumble rap, also called non-lyrical rap, is a style of hip-hop that became popular on the online music sharing site SoundCloud during the mid-to-late 2010s. The term was first used as a negative description for a vocal style where singers spoke or sang in a way that was hard to understand. This style moved away from traditional hip-hop, which focused on clear and meaningful lyrics, and instead highlighted other elements like melody, mood, and tone.
Cloud rap (also called trillwave) is a type of hip-hop music that started in the Southern hip-hop scene between the late 2000s and early 2010s. This style combines sounds from trap, ambient, and new age music to create a soft, dreamy, and calm atmosphere. It uses a lot of reverb and gentle, broken music samples.
Snap music, also called snap, ringtone rap, or snap rap, is a type of hip hop music that came from crunk. It began in the southern United States in the 2000s, specifically in Bankhead, West Atlanta. It became popular in the mid-2000s but lost popularity soon after.
Bounce music is a type of New Orleans hip-hop music that started in the late 1980s in the city’s housing projects. Some popular bounce artists are DJ Jubilee, Partners-N-Crime, Magnolia Shorty, and Big Freedia.
The term “hyphy” (pronounced “HY-fee”) is a word from Oakland, California, that means “hyperactive.” It is an adjective used to describe the hip-hop music and the culture connected to the Oakland area. The word was created by rapper Keak da Sneak.
Crunk is a type of hip hop music that began in the early 1990s and became widely popular in the mid-2000s. It is often fast-paced and is one of the more dance-friendly styles within Southern hip hop. A typical crunk song usually includes a main rhythm made up of layered keyboard sounds, a drum machine beat, strong bass music, and vocal parts that often alternate between a singer and a group.