The Future of African Of Music

The globalization of African sound has never been more exponentially evident than what we are witnessing now. The innovators behind this moment and momentum have proven that the popularity of the sound stems not only from the genre but from the authenticity of just being African. Meet the hit musicmakers not just taking Africa to the global stage but also making Africa a stage for the world.

- Chanel Retief | For Lungelihle Zwane, Ofentse Pitse and Wouter Kellerman

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO VIEW TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM Reels or YouTube shorts without glimpsing visuals of some form or another of a foot-tapping dance number gone viral, from the Yahyuppiyah (Uncle Waffles) or Unavailable dance challenges (Davido and Musa Keys) more recently, to the 2020 smash hit Jerusalema, which kept the world dancing to its energetic beats through the Covid-19 lockdown periods.

There is no other way to say this but simply – when it comes to music, Africa is firmly in the global spotlight.

When FORBES AFRICA looked at the star-studded entertainment industry and its leading protagonists in 2022, the focal point was the radical shift of the music sector from a continental perspective; the rise of Amapiano and Afrobeats, the use of social media to garner trends across Africa as well as the international uptake this could potentially herald. Evidently, the themes of the conversation this year are the same but have now shifted onto a wider and more prolific global paradigm.

A significant reason behind the unprecedented growth of African music has to do with the power and gravitas of social media. The influx of fresh talent in the industry is evidence of that. Ten years ago, this would have seemed impossible for artists on the continent.

Davin Phillips, Executive Director at Celebrity Services Africa (CSA), an agency that specializes in brand marketing in the culture and entertainment space, says that social media is the reason the rest of the world has been able to reach African artists.