Afropop

Africa is a continent with a wide range of ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity. A general description of African Music is not possible as there is no distinctly pan-African music, only shar

Africa is a continent with a wide range of ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity. A general description of African Music is not possible as there is no distinctly pan-African music, only shared forms of musical expression. Nevertheless, there are regional similarities between dissimilar groups, as well as popular trends known across the continent.

This article focuses mainly on sub-Saharan music. As Alan Lomax has shown in comparative studies of music and dance forms from around the world, the music of northern Africa and parts of the Sahara are more closely connected to Middle Eastern music than to those of sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, the music and dance forms of the black diaspora (many Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa, as well as African American music) were founded to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken there by African slaves.