when it was the biggest Some of the biggest names in music will gather at the Grammy Awards on Sunday for the industry's highest honor, with a new trophy for Best African Music Performance.
The award reflects the growing popularity of Afrobeats and other music from the continent, which is gaining a global audience with the help of social media platforms such as short-form video app TikTok.
Afrobeats originated in West Africa, primarily Ghana and Nigeria, but the term is often used as an umbrella term for various musical styles that come from Africa. It features percussion rhythms that mix various genres from rap to jazz and R&B.
Billboard magazine's R&B and hip-hop writer Heran Mamo, who created the 2022 US Afrobeats chart, said modern Afrobeats has a “comfortable groove.” A little bit of everything for everyone. ”
On Spotify, Afrobeats music was streamed 13.5 billion times in 2022, up from 2 billion times in 2017.
In another milestone, Nigerian singer Burna Boy became the first African artist to fill a stadium in the United States when he played at New York's Citi Field last summer.
New Grammy nominees on Sunday include 22-year-old South African singer Tyra. She reached the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart with her danceable songs. waterExamples of genres known as amapianoa sound that incorporates jazz and piano.
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A South African TikTok executive noticed Tyra's rise to prominence in the local market in 2020 and gave her tips on how to maximize her presence on the app. water It was released in July 2023 after Tyra signed with Sony Music Entertainment's Epic Records.
By September, TikTok users were imitating Tyra's dance moves in the #WaterChallenge. According to TikTok, 1.5 million videos have been created using the song, and the #WaterChallenge hashtag has been viewed 1.8 billion times.
“I think TikTok has served as an incubator, but it has also served as a distributor to over a billion users around the world, and that's exactly where we landed,” said TikTok's Global Head of Music. said one Ole Overman.
Read: TikTok replaces Instagram in South Africa
Tyla's success shows the power of TikTok and YouTube in helping artists find a fan base around the world. This used to be the role of music labels.
“The proliferation of streaming and new social media platforms (like TikTok) is accelerating the discovery of artists and expanding their fan bases around the world,” said Jessica Leaf Cohen, an analyst at Bank of America Securities. new media for artists,” he said in a research note. Predict media trends for 2024.
TikTok remains controversial in the United States because it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, with critics viewing it as a security risk. The Biden administration has banned the app from U.S. government devices. TikTok officials said they have strict security measures in place and deny allegations of spying on user data.
The app is also in a dispute with Universal Music Group over royalties for songs by Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and others. As of Friday, music from many Universal artists is no longer available on TikTok.
According to a recent MIDiA Research study, TikTok ranks as the second most popular music discovery source for U.S. teens after YouTube, with 45% of 16-19 year olds discovering new music through the platform. It has been shown that
Other Afrobeat artists who have found an audience on TikTok include Nigerian rapper Rema.He collaborated with Selena Gomez on a remix of her own song Calm downThe song peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Best Afrobeat at MTV's Video Music Awards last September.
TikTok is helping to forge new connections between American and African artists. Oberman said he played a short clip of the song “.” oggia piano From Nigerian musician KCee to Ryan Tedder, songwriter and lead singer of the band OneRepublic.
Tedder loved the sound of it so much that he immediately contacted KCee, and two days later he hopped on a plane from Lagos to Los Angeles and together they created a remix of the song.
Oberman hopes the soon-to-be-released remix will breathe new life into it. oggia pianoa combination of amapiano and a Nigerian flute called oja, continues to fuel the Afrobeats craze.
“This is going to be a big, growing genre,” Overman said. — Lisa Richwine, (c) 2024 Reuters
