The continent of Africa and its music are very large and have many different styles. Each region and country in Africa has its own unique musical traditions. African music includes many types, such as makwaya, highlife, mbube, township music, jùjú, fuji, jaiva, afrobeat, afrofusion, mbalax, Congolese rumba, soukous, ndombolo, makossa, kizomba, and taarab, among others. African music also uses a wide range of instruments from across the continent.

Music and dance traditions from the African diaspora, which are influenced by African musical styles, include American genres like Dixieland jazz, blues, and jazz. Caribbean styles such as calypso (also called kaiso) and soca are also part of this tradition. Latin American music, including cumbia, salsa, son cubano, rumba, conga, bomba, samba, and zouk, developed from the music of enslaved Africans. These styles have, in turn, influenced modern African popular music.

Like the music of Asia, India, and the Middle East, African music is very rhythmic. It often uses complex patterns where one rhythm is played against another, creating a polyrhythm. A common example is the three-against-two rhythm, similar to a triplet played against straight notes. Music from Sub-Saharan Africa often uses many percussion instruments, such as xylophones, djembes, drums, and tone-producing instruments like the mbira, or "thumb piano."

A key feature of African music is the call-and-response style, where one voice or instrument plays a short melody, and another voice or instrument repeats or answers it. This pattern also appears in rhythm, with one drum playing a beat that is echoed or matched by another. African music is also highly improvised, meaning musicians create new patterns based on a core rhythm.

Traditional African music is often passed down through oral tradition, which means it is shared through speaking and singing rather than written notes. Small differences in pitch and tone are hard to write in Western musical notation. African music commonly uses scales with four, five, six, or seven notes, similar to Western scales. Harmonies are often created by singing in parallel thirds, fourths, or fifths.

Music plays an important role in the lives of people in Africa. It is made for public enjoyment and participation, and this shared experience inspired Christopher Small's idea of "musicking," which describes music as a group activity. Music is also used to express ideas, such as through work songs, love songs, lullabies, praise songs, storytelling songs, and satirical songs. It is also important in religion, where music helps share stories and support singing and dancing during rituals and ceremonies.

Music by regions

North Africa is where ancient Egypt and Carthage were located. These civilizations had strong connections to the ancient Near East and influenced Greek and Roman cultures. Egypt was later ruled by the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans. Carthage was ruled by the Romans and later by the Vandals. After that, Arab forces conquered the region and added it to the Maghreb of Arab Africa (sky-blue and dark green area on the map). The music of North Africa remains closely connected to Middle Eastern music and uses similar melodic scales called maqamat.

North African music includes many styles, from ancient Egyptian music to the music of the Berber and Tuareg desert nomads. For many centuries, the region's art music followed the rules of Arabic and Andalusian classical music. Today, popular music in Algeria includes the genre called raï.

The music of Sudan and the Horn of Africa, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia, can be grouped with North African music. Somali music is usually pentatonic, using five notes per octave, unlike the seven-note major scale. Ethiopian highland music is based on a system of modes called qenet, which includes four main modes: tezeta, bati, ambassel, and anchihoy. Three other modes are variations of these: tezeta minor, bati major, and bati minor. Some songs are named after their qenet, such as tizita, which is a song about memories.

Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980), a music expert, noted that the rhythmic patterns in Bantu African music form a single unified system. Similarly, master drummer and scholar C. K. Ladzekpo said that Bantu African rhythms share many similarities.

African traditional music is often used for specific purposes. Performances can be long and involve audience participation. There are songs for work, childbirth, marriage, hunting, and political events. Other music is used to protect against evil spirits or to honor ancestors and the dead. These songs are usually performed only in their intended settings and are often linked to specific dances. In some cases, professional musicians play sacred or ceremonial music at royal courts.

Outside the Horn of Africa, the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa can be divided into four music areas:

• Eastern region (light green on map): Includes the music of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, as well as Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Somalia (which can also be part of East Africa), and Comoros. Many traditions here were influenced by Arabic, Indian, Indonesian, and Polynesian music, though most styles are from the Bantu/Niger–Congo-speaking groups.
• Southern region (brown on map): Includes the music of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.
• Central region (dark blue on map): Includes the music of Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia, including the music of the Pygmies.
• Western region (yellow on map): Includes the music of Senegal and the Gambia; Guinea and Guinea-Bissau; Sierra Leone and Liberia; the inland areas of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso; the coastal countries of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo; and island nations like São Tomé and Príncipe.

Southern, Central, and Western Africa share many features of the broader Sub-Saharan musical tradition. They also show influences from Muslim regions of Africa and, in modern times, from the Americas and Western Europe.

Genres like Afrobeat, jùjú, fuji, highlife, makossa, and kizomba are found in West Africa. West African music varies by region. Muslim areas often include elements of Islamic music, such as lyrics praising God, melodic changes, and vocal styles that mimic the Islamic call to prayer (originating from Bilal ibn Rabah, an African Muslim in the 7th century). Non-Muslim areas rely more on indigenous traditions. Historian Sylviane Diouf and ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik note that Muslim West African music uses vocal techniques like melisma and wavy tones, which reflect long connections with the Arabic-Islamic world. Kubik also observed that string instruments, including ancestors of the banjo, were common in Muslim West African communities, while drumming was more typical in non-Muslim areas.

Musical instruments

In addition to vocal techniques, such as complex melisma and yodeling, many musical instruments are used. African instruments include a wide variety of drums, slit gongs, rattles, and double bells; harps and similar instruments like the kora and ngoni; fiddles; xylophones and lamellophones such as the mbira; and wind instruments like flutes and trumpets. String instruments are also used, with lute-like instruments such as the oud and ngoni often serving as accompaniment in some regions.

Sub-Saharan African musical instruments are divided into five groups: membranophones, chordophones, aerophones, idiophones, and percussion. Membranophones include drums such as kettles, clay pots, and barrels. Chordophones are stringed instruments like harps and fiddles. Aerophones are wind instruments, including flutes and trumpets, similar to those found in American music. In Northern Nigeria, Niger, and Northern Cameroon, the algaita—a double reed instrument—is commonly played during festivals and seasonal celebrations.

Idiophones include rattles and shakers, while percussion also includes sounds made by people, such as stomping feet or clapping hands. Many wooden instruments are carved with shapes or figures that represent ancestry and are sometimes decorated with feathers or beads.

Drums used in African traditional music include talking drums, bougarabou, and djembe in West Africa; water drums in Central and West Africa; and ngoma (or engoma) drums in Central and Southern Africa. Other percussion instruments include rattles and shakers like the kashaka (or kosika), rain sticks, bells, and wooden sticks. Africa also has many other types of drums, flutes, string, and wind instruments.

Polyrhythms, where multiple rhythms are played at the same time, are a common feature in Sub-Saharan music, unlike polyphony in Western music. Over time, many instruments were designed to help musicians play different rhythms together. The mbira, kalimba, kora, ngoni, and dousn'gouni arrange their notes in two separate rows instead of a single line from bass to treble, making it easier to create cross rhythms. This design influenced modern instruments like the gravi-kora and gravikord, which are updated versions of traditional African instruments.

Relationship to language

Many African languages use tone to change the meaning of words, creating a strong connection between music and language in some cultures. In these communities, people use vocal sounds and physical movements during musical performances. These elements are part of how music and language are connected. In singing, the way tones are used in the language affects the melody of the song. On the other hand, in instrumental music, people who speak the language can often understand hidden messages or meanings within the music. This connection is also the foundation for drum languages, or "talking drums."

Influences on African music

Historically, many factors have shaped the traditional music of Africa. Language, environment, different cultural practices, politics, and the movement of people have all played a role in how this music developed. Each African group lived in different parts of the continent, where they faced different climates, had access to different foods, and interacted with nearby communities. These groups moved to different places at different times, which meant they were influenced by various people and situations. Additionally, these communities had different types of leadership, which also helped create the wide variety of music found across Africa.

Influence on North American music

African music has greatly influenced the development of musical styles such as Dixieland, the blues, and jazz. These styles used rhythms and sounds from Africa, which were brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans. Music from Sub-Saharan Africa is usually lively and has many overlapping rhythms, but the blues grew out of the difficult experiences of enslaved people in the Americas. The blues likely came from a mix of African musical scales and European musical instruments. Later, music from Irish and Scottish settlers combined with African-American traditions to create styles like old-time and bluegrass.

On his album Graceland, American musician Paul Simon used South African music as a background for his songs. He worked with artists like Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Ray Phiri. In the 1970s, Remi Kabaka, a drummer known for his unique style, created drum patterns that influenced bands such as Ginger Baker's Air Force, The Rolling Stones, and Steve Winwood's Traffic. He also worked with musicians like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger during this time.

Some musical traditions from Sub-Saharan Africa helped shape movies like The Lion King and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. These films mix African and Western musical styles. Songs like "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "He Lives in You" use Zulu and English words and include traditional South African music styles such as isicathamiya and mbube. The movies also use words from Bantu languages, such as "hakuna matata," which means "no worries" in Swahili. Names like Simba, Kovu, and Zira mean "lion," "scar," and "hate" in African languages.

Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Babatunde Olatunji were among the first African artists to gain large followings in the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s, radio stations that focused on African-American culture helped promote African music. African music was also popular at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and was supported by people involved in the civil rights and Black Power movements.

Afro-pop

African popular music, also known as African pop or afro-pop, is as diverse as the traditional music of Africa. Many modern African music styles have developed by blending with Western popular music. Some Western music genres, such as blues, jazz, and rumba, have roots in African musical traditions brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds were later used in new genres like rock, soul, and rhythm and blues. In return, African popular music has adopted elements from Western music, including instruments and recording techniques.

In 1933, Solomon Linda formed a group called Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds. Though he could not read or write, he began writing songs while working as a herder. The group’s most famous song, "Mbube," released in 1939, was the first African record to sell over 100,000 copies. Another important 20th-century musician was Miriam Makeba, who helped the world recognize African music in the 1960s. Starting in the 1950s, Miriam Makeba became one of Africa’s most well-known musicians. She performed in three groups, including an all-female band, and sang many styles, such as jazz, traditional African music, and music popular in Western Africa at the time. Much of her music used "mbube," a vocal harmony style influenced by American jazz, ragtime, church hymns, and African traditions. After moving to the United States, she stayed there due to passport issues and added American influences to her music. Miriam Makeba, known as "The Empress of African Music," passed away at 76.

In West Africa, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen played Afrobeat music. Their sons, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti, continued their father’s musical legacy. A mix of African and European music from Cuba, called Cuban son, influenced African popular music. Some of Africa’s earliest guitar bands performed songs based on Cuban music. Guitar bands from the Congo called their music "rumba," though it was actually a different style called son. This Congolese style later became soukous. In 1972, Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango released a song called "Soul Makossa," which is now the most sampled African record in history.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup theme song, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)," performed by Shakira and Freshlyground, used a melody from a song called "Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)" by the group Golden Sounds. This melody was likely inspired by makossa music.

Kalpop

Kalpop is a type of music that began in the Klassikan royal communities under the Klassik Nation record label. It combines Klassikan music, African music, songs in many languages, and popular music styles. Kalpop first appeared in its modern form in the mid-1990s in Kenya and later spread to the United States and the United Kingdom. The genre has gained more fans over time, with many local and new bands contributing to its growth. In Nairobi alone, more than thirteen active groups help promote Kalpop through events hosted by individuals and groups working together. Artists who perform Kalpop in Kenya include DON SANTO, Badman Killa, Blessed Paul, Cash B, Jay Nuclear, Rekless, G-Youts (Washu B and Nicki Mulla), Sleek Whizz, and Chizei, among others.

Music industry

For African musicians, live performances have often been one of the main ways to earn money. Record sales have decreased because of piracy and changes in how people buy music. In many parts of Africa, laws protecting music copyrights are not strongly enforced. MusikBi is the first legal music download service in Africa. It does not offer streaming and faces challenges because many areas in Africa have slow internet connections. In some African countries, such as Kenya, Gambia, and South Africa, people have protested over concerns that too much radio time is given to American music. In Zimbabwe, rules require that 75% of radio airtime be used for local music. These rules have helped new music styles, like Urban Grooves, grow. In 2016, Sony Music opened an office in Nigeria to expand its presence in Africa. Before this, major Western music companies did not provide services in Africa, and local demand for their music was often met through illegal copying. Since 2014, the Visa for Music festival has taken place every year in Morocco. It highlights artists with African roots through performances, music videos, and marketing efforts aimed at global creative industries.