Episode 78: Highlife in a Lowlife Week

We are doing an Africa theme today, in fact the oldest show theme here at Tropicology, another installment of the Night at Club Safari theme. This theme is devoted to the earliest flavors of African popular music recorded in studio settings, starting in the late 50s and the early 60s, the era of independence from Colonial rule. Ghana and Nigeria had very similar musical traditions, creating the style known as Highlife. Highlife and Congolese Rumba were the first popular music styles in Africa to spread beyond their national borders; both styles became widely popular throughout Africa in the 1960s. The first hour today features highlife music from the late 60s and 70s, as that style was adapting to a more electric sound… along with a bit of rumba and Afro-latin. The second hour will open with the slowjam bolero sound of The Congos, followed by a mix of pop sounds from more recent years.