See Below The History Of Nigeria Music

The very first fusion of nigeria’s indigenous musical forms with western civilisation was as a result of its contact with the guitar.

This was in the 1920s through sailors and kru-men from sierra leone who played the guitar as an instrument of pleasure.

Over the years, many more instruments were added. The professional approach has since been adopted to performance, and the music itself has evolved through various trends and complexities which in contemporary terms have continued to be propelled by high technological advancement.

Nigerian music, writes sam akpabot, has many faces which over the years have been so interwoven that differences among them are very thin.
The late musician and critic reasons that nigerian music is a deeply functional exercise which draws heavily on religious, political, sociological, anthropological, economical and educational fronts, adding that the music derives its socio-cultural power from the society in order to make any progress in the future.

Some other critics of african music say that african arts, especially, traditional music, functions in the social structure on three principal levels as part of religious ritual, as expression of social organisation and as recreation.

These three areas seem to cover almost the whole spectrum of nigerian music. Religious ritual is about the music practices of nigerians from antiquity.

At the beginning of the twentieth century then nigeria would learn other music genres from there english rule. Those like waltz, slow foxtrot, tango and other forms but also would learn from other cultures.

Like when the radio came into picture the nigerians started to hear other culture music, which would play into juju. Thus around the middle of the twentieth century juju became big.

Taking in cultures music like that of brazil and caribbean countries.

And continued on mixing styles like calypso, meringue, cha cha, and even african highlife.

Nigeria has some of the most advanced recording studio technology in africa, and provides robust commercial opportunities for music performers. Ronnie graham, an historian who specialises in west africa, has attributed the success of the nigerian music industry to the country’s culture—its “Thirst for aesthetic and material success and a voracious appetite for life, love and music, and a huge domestic market, big enough to sustain artists who sing in regional languages and experiment with indigenous styles”. However, political corruption and rampant music piracy in nigeria has hampered the industry’s growth.

Juju keeps on changing cause nigerians keep adding different cultural music. This is the case for all of nigerian music, which is taking in other cultures and adding it to theirs. Even to their traditional music.