Music of Côte d'Ivoire - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Traditional music

Each of the more than sixty ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

s of Côte d'Ivoire have their own folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

traditions, most showing strong vocal polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

(a common characteristic of African music), especially the Baoulé

Baoulé

The Baoulé are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in the Ivory Coast. The Baoulé are farmers who live in the eastern side of Côte d'Ivoire . The Baoule people are represented by religion, art, festivals, and equal society . There are more than sixty-five different Akan-speaking ethnic...

. Talking drums are also common, especially among the Appollo, who are also known for their abissa

Abissa

Abissa is a cultural concept embracing the music, dance, and spiritual life of the Nzema people in the town of Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. The best-known expression of Abissa is a festival celebrated the last week of October. It is a time of forgiveness and rebirth marked by a...

purification dance, part of the popular Zoblazo

Zoblazo

Zoblazo is a musical style from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, first created in the early 1990s. It is a cosmopolitan popular dance music with simple up-tempo rhythm and high tech instrumentation and contains a mixture of traditional dance rhythms from southern Côte d'Ivoire.Zoblazo's best known exponent...

dance music of Meiway. Polyrhythm

Polyrhythm

Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...

, another African characteristic, is found throughout Côte d'Ivoire and is especially common in the southwest.

Popular Music

Gbégbé, a Bété rhythm, has been a part of popular music since Côte d'Ivoire's independence, popularized by Soeurs Comöé and later, Frères Djatys and Sery Simplice.www.serysimplice.com Ernesto Djédjé

Ernesto Djédjé

Ernesto Djédjé was an Ivorian musician from Daloa. His parents were Wolof and Bété. Djédjé began playing music at fifteen when he became a guitarist with Ivoiro Star, a leading dopé band, in 1962. He moved to Paris in 1968 and became a student...

, however, is considered the father of Ivorian popular music. Using one of the folk rhythms of the Bété

Bété

Bété may refer to:*Bété people of Côte d'Ivoire*Bété language or languages spoken by them*Bété alphabet*Bété , a small citrus fruit grown in southern Nigeria. Closely related to the lime....

as well as his teacher, Amédée Pierre's dopé

Dope

Dope may refer to:* Illegal drugs * An idiot...

style. Djédjé has long been an advocate of Ivorian music, railing against the "Congolization

Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Describing the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is difficult, due to vagaries surrounding the meanings of various terms. The country itself was formerly called Zaire and is now sometimes referred to as Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from the Republic of the Congo...

" of the Abidjan scene. Outside of Côte d'Ivoire, Djédjé is best known for 1977's Gnoantre-Ziboté, which was a pan-African hit and found some success in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He plays a type of music called ziglibithy

Ziglibithy

Ziglibithy is a style of Ivorian popular music that developed in the 1970s. It was the first major genre of music from the Ivory Coast. The first major pioneer of the style was Ernesto Djedje.-References:*...

.

Since Djédjé, few Ivorian musicians have been able to achieve the same level of fame. Luckson Padaud's laba laba style, which is similar to the Bété ziglibithy, has had some success, as has Gnaore Djimi's polihet.

Ivorian artists in World styles

The most popular styles in Côte d'Ivoire are imported reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

from Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

and hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; the country has produced notable musicians of both genres, especially Alpha Blondy

Alpha Blondy

Alpha Blondy is a reggae singer and international recording artist. Alpha Blondy was born Seydou Koné in Dimbokro, Côte d'Ivoire. He sings mainly in his native language of Dioula, in French and English, and sometimes in Arabic or Hebrew...

whose brand of Afro-reggae became a national hit following his appearance on the TV show First chance in 1983. Tiken Jah Fakoly

Tiken Jah Fakoly

Tiken Jah Fakoly is a reggae singer from Côte d'Ivoire.Tiken Jah was born into a family of griots and christened Doumbia Moussa Fakoly on June 23, 1968 in Odienné, north-western Côte d'Ivoire. He discovered reggae at an early age, assembling his first group, Djelys, in 1987...

is another popular Ivorian reggae musician, who has been living in exile due to his politically outspoken lyrics.

Hip hop has been popular in Côte d'Ivoire since the mid-1990s, and includes a gangsta rap

Gangsta rap

Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...

-influenced style called rap dogba. Notable hip hop musicians include All Mighty, Rudy Rudiction, M.C. Claver and Angelo

Angelo

Angelo is an Italian and Greek masculine given name meaning "angel", or "messenger". Angelo is also an Italian surname that has many variations: Angeli , Angela , De Angelis, D'Angelo, Angelini, Angelino , Angelina , Angelucci, Angeloni, Angeletti .Angelo as a given name may refer to:*Angelo...

. The new R&B group 2431(formerly known as Monah) is also taking over, as R&B became very famous since U.S. chart-topping Akon

Akon

Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, better known as simply Akon , is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first...

had a concert in Abidjan, late 2006. Other R&B stars include Teeyah and Tour de Garde.

Zoblazo

, pioneered from 1990 by Meiway, the former front man to the bands Les Genitaux, Defense d'Ivoire, and Zo Gang,integrated traditional rythmns of southern Côte d'Ivoire with electronic instruments and party lyrics. His success across the country and West Africa in the mid to late 1990s spawned a string of hit Zoblazo records that has continued through 2007, even as other dance styles, like prudencia and coupé décalé have edged out Zoblazo. Even Meidway, through a series of guest musicians like Manu Dibango

Manu Dibango

-External links:*...

, Jacob Desvarieux, Lokua Kanza

Lokua Kanza

Lokua Kanza is a singer, songwriter, and composer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is known for his soulful, folksy sound, which is atypical of the dancefloor friendly soukous music that is common in the Congo.-Biography:...

, Kojo Antwi and Koffi Olomidé

Koffi Olomide

Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, also known as Koffi Olomide , is a DR Congolese soukous singer, dancer, producer, and composer. He is also known by a multitude of other names and aliases.-Background:...

has added Cuban, Mbalax

Mbalax

Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and The Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal...

and Ghanaian Hi-life musics.

Zouglou

Zouglou is a dance oriented style of music from the Côte d'Ivoire that first evolved in the 1990s out of the university crisis at the time. It started with students from the University of Abidjan...

, a recent Ivorian popular tradition, comes from the early 1990s when university students, upset about living conditions on campus, began rallying around Didier Bilé. Zouglou was satirical in nature, and usually accompanied by a dance to a fictional god.

Coupé-Décalé

Coupé-Décalé is a type of popular dance music originating from Côte d'Ivoire and the Ivorian diaspora in Paris, France. Drawing heavily from Zouglou, Zouk, and Congolese rhythms, Coupé-Décalé is a very percussive style featuring African samples, deep bass, and repetitive, minimalist...

was pioneered by the late Stephane Doukouré (a.k.. "Douk-Saga") during the post-2002 militaro-political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. It reflects the aspirations of a large section of Ivorian youth. Coupé-Décalé is a very percussive style featuring African samples, deep bass, and repetitive, minimalist arrangements. Lyrically, Coupé-Décalé is about happiness, expressing daily life in Ivorian society, and also gives an insight into the political situation of the country. The prominent artists of Coupé-Décalé are Douk-Saga (Doukouré) with its Jet Set, DJ Brico, DJ Arsenal, Papa Ministre with his famous tune "Coupé-Décalé Chinois", and many other talented Ivorian artists. The most prominent singer in actuality is named DJ Lewis with its Grippe Aviaire Dance, derived from Coupé-Décalé. Other names like David Tayorault, Afrika Reprezenta, DJ Lewis are very recurrent.fgsgr--74.72.32.114 (talk) 13:33, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

External links

Audio clips: Traditional music of Ivory Coast. Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.

Audio links - traditional music of Ivory Coast. French National Library. Accessed November 25, 2010.
Discography for Ivory Coast :Afropop Worldwide(2003)

Ivorian Hip Hop

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