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Ghana has no representation for our music globally, genre-wise – Appietus laments
Ghanaian music producer, Appiah Dankwah, popularly known as Appietus has opined that the Ghana music industry lacks a particular genre to represent us globally.
According to him, while some countries have personalised certain music genres, making it easy to identify where a particular sound is coming from, Ghana cannot say the same.
Speaking in a recent interview on Hitz Fm’s ‘Daybreak Hitz’, Appietus argued that Ghanaians should have a representation globally, music wise.
“In Ghana, if you go outside Ghana, I think Black stars is more known than our music here in Ghana. What kind of music represents us out there? The moment you say Jamaica, Reggae comes to mind; the moment you mention Hip-Hop, America comes to mind, mention dancehall and Jamaica comes to mind, Afrobeats, Nigeria comes to mind, you don’t have to mention the name of any artiste, the moment you ask which music is representing us (Ghana) out there, they will start mentioning names and not genres, just ask chale where does Afrobeats originate from and they will tell you Nigeria, 90 percent of people will mention Nigeria, meanwhile Ghanaians originated it,” he explained.
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He continued; “My problem is we should have our roots, the moment somebody says Azonto, we had Azonto and it was worldwide, Something should represent us out there, yes once in a while somebody will make a hit then it will go there then you will see that most of the fans are from Nigeria and Nigerians will also be making noise about that song.
“So there is this notion that Afrobeats is for Nigeria, whether we like it or not there is that notion out there, you’ll ask a white guy and he will tell you Afrobeats is for Nigeria. What is Ghana represented by? Which music represents Ghana out there? They will start mentioning names like Black Sherif, Camidoh and they won’t mention any genre but no that is not what we want, dancehall is still been sang in Jamaica and they are still doing reggae,” he said.
Appietus raised concerns about the fact that Ghanaian artistes abstained from the main genres (Highlife and Azonto) and focused on developing different genres which belongs to other countries.
“We had highlife, we had azonto and we left it, the Nigerians were trying to take it and we made lots of noise, they left it for us and then we dropped it. We need to have something and I don’t mind what it is but will make you mention that genre and everyone will be like oh it’s from Ghana,” he stated.
The music producer further explained how other countries keep on modifying their genres to be recognized globally, insisting that the Ghanaian music industry should modify a genre and promote Ghana globally as well.
“Nigerians are always adding new things to Afrobeats but they are not changing the name. South Africans had Kwaito, and now they brought Amapiano but most of the songs still have elements of Kwaito in them yet they call it Amapiano. They have stuck to it and the whole world has accepted it, I don’t understand that we have all joined in and we are doing it, it’s good but we should have our own. We are represented by nothing.
“Imagine we call our music Highlife or Azonto or whatever it is and we keep modifying it, the people will know that this music comes from here (Ghana) and this is how it sounds. It doesn’t matter the genre, we can always add new things. The more everybody is doing it, it will look good outside,” he noted.
