Evolution of Nigerian Music - So Far, So Good

Music has been known to provide comfort to people in distress, as well as providing some form of entertainment. Over the centuries, music has moved from one stage to another so that it can conform to the current trend.
The Nigerian music is so dynamic that it is known worldwide. The world music isn't complete without mentioning Nigerian music and that is why we now see different foreign artiste coming to sing or perform in Nigeria. The Nigerian music covers so many folk songs which have their origins from the various ethnic groups in the country and popular songs with roots from other foreign cultures especially from the West.
However, each kind of song is so distinctive with each having its own techniques, instruments, and language.
Nigeria is a blessed country with diverse cultural heritages but more focus is usually placed on the three major tribes, namely Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This is because of their size in terms of population and land space. This is not to say the minor tribes are ignored but are most times categorised under the major tribes depending on their locations.
The northern part of the country is a unique entity for its kind of music. The people of the North are known for complex percussion instrument music, the one-stringed goje, and a strong praise song vocal tradition. This part of the country, by the virtue of being a Muslim dominated area and their strict adherence to culture, have been able to blend their music with Arabic. The Hausa play percussion instruments such as the tambura drum; the talking drum and the Kakaki which is the elongated state trumpet. Traditional stars included the Hausa Dan Maraya, who was so well known that he was brought to the battlefield during the 1967 Nigerian Civil War to lift the morale of the federal troops.
The Igbos play a wide variety of folk instruments and are known for their ready adoption of foreign styles, and were an important part of the development of the Nigerian highlife music. Just like every other cultural setting, they had peculiar kind of singing which was and is in the Igbo language, Ibo and they made use of the 13-stringed zither, called an obo. The Igbo also play slit drums, xylophones, flutes, lyres, udus and lutes, and more recently, imported European brass instruments.
Without any form of bias, the Yoruba music is most considered as the most important component of modern Nigerian popular music, as a result of its early influence from European, Islamic and Brazilian forms. Singing in one's language was difficult especially if it's intended for the international audience. In actual fact, there was no international appeal when singing in one's dialect until the Yoruba broke through. Modern styles such as Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister's fuji, Salawa Abeni's waka and Yusuf Olatunji's sakara are derived primarily from Yoruba traditional music. Yoruba music has now come of age and the new generation of Nigerian music now sings in their native language. 9ice is one of many that broke into the industry with Gongo Aso and many more artists followed.

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