Historical Afrobeats research

What is Afrobeats?

 Afrobeats was originated from the southern part of Nigeria 1960. It is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, high life  funk, and chanted vocals mixed with percussion and vocal styles, this style of music was only popularized in Africa in the 1970's.The most popular instrument out of all others involved with Afrobeats is the famous African drums. Afrobeats features chants, call-and-response vocals, and complex, interacting rhythms.

 

 It's Founder (1960's)

Its key leader and founder was the famous Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti. He was the original founder of this style of music, he gave it it's name. He came up with this style by experimenting with different types of contemporary music until finally he had stumbled upon Afrobeats. He used it to revolutionize musical structure as well as the political context in his native Nigeria. It was Kuti who first used the term "afrobeats" after his return from a American tour with his group Nigeria '70 (or originally known as Koola Lobitos).This new style of music emerged from a club that he established called the Afro-Shrine. Upon arriving in Nigeria, Kuti also changed the name of his group to Africa '70. The band maintained a five-year residency in the Afro-Shrine from 1970-1975 while Afrobeats became popular among Nigerian youth. 

 

Today

As a result of it's founder Fela Kuti, Afrobeats has become widespread and is more popular in countries such as England and America. As a result of Afrobeats becoming popular it has been involved with other genres like hip-hop, gospel, makossa, galala. Many artists exist in Afrobeats today, artists such as:

 

 

• D'banj, Nigerian musician 


• P-square, Nigerian musician


• Wizkid, Nigerian musician


• Davido, Nigerian musician


• Burna Boy, Nigerian musician


• Wande Coal, Nigerian musician


• May7ven, UK based, Nigerian musician


• Naeto C, Nigerian musician


• Nice, Nigerian musician


• Femi Kuti, Nigerian musician, son of Fela Kuti


• Seun Kuti, Nigerian musician, son of Fela Kuti

Music Magazine Planning Ideas

Genre of Music
The magazine will cover the genre of Afrobeats music.

Target audience
The target audience will be teenagers and young adults from 12-35 years old. They should live in the UK, East London to be specific. Their interests should involve dancing and listening to music.

Name of the magazine
The name of the magazine will either be AfroVibes, AfroMag, AfroPop. I felt that the name had to have the phrase 'Afro' in it to indicate the genre of music to the readers straight away.

Masthead
The masthead will be bold and adopt a strong colour such as red to make it stand out.

Focal image
The focal image for the front cover will be an artist from the Afrobeats genre either leaning on a car or sitting on top of it. The artist will be a male. I have chosen this focal image simply because the model on the front cover has to relate to the genre of the magazine (Afrobeats), it has to relate to the contents of the magazine to ensure the readers are not confused. I also feel that having this focal image will really attract the readers eye.

Photography
For the front cover a mid-shot will be required to ensure the readers can see both the car and the model clearly.Either a high angle or a normal angle will be used.

 Mise-en-scene
The location has to be open containing lots of space for only the car and the model to be seen, the back ground should be plain so the focal image can stand out. The clothing the model will be wearing will be casual, the model will also wear african beads and perhaps some african cloth. Some light make-up may be used. The location should be well lit to ensure the models features are clearly shown.

Sell Lines
The sell lines will be 'Feel the base', 'Spice up your weekend' and 'Can you azonto'. The audience will be kept interested with rhetorical questions in the form of a sell line.

Items and feature articles on the contents page
A feature article of a upcoming Afrobeats group will be put in along with various pictures, the page numbers and the magazine issue number. The contents page will include topics such as 'how to azonto' etc.

Focus of the dobule page spread
The focus of the double page spread will be a feature article of an upcoming group in the Afrobeats industry.

Photograpy for the double page spread
A mid-shot will be taken of the the upcoming band.

Notes

Front Cover Image

The rules:
Type of shot- mid,mid-close or close up
Framing- portrait centred or left


Mise-en-scene
 
Setting
Lighting
Props
Costume
Hair/Make-up

Denotation- Facts, police descriptions, what you actually see,

Conoatations-Descriptive words, opinions, interpretation of meaning


Foundation Portfolio- Magazine Production

• 2 tasks- Preliminary and Main task
• Coursework worth 50% of AS grade
• Main task- Music Magzine:the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine

20 marks- Research and planning
60 marks- Constructing
20 marks- Evaluation


Music Magazines
NME
XXL
Mojo
Mix Mag
Q
The Source
VIBE
KERRANG

Music magazine: Genre conventions

Pictures
Reviews-albums,singles,live shows
Album releases
 Genre specific
Interviews
Latest News
Advertising

Why do we do genre research?
 To find out what conventions are so that we can replicate them in our production.

To gain a historical overview of the genre.

Student magazine front cover and contents page