Orchestre Baobab

African popular music (often shortened to “Afropop” in general parlance) is an umbrella term for contemporary, urban-oriented music made by Africans that blends African rhythmic and melodic sensibilities with Western instruments and production. It does not denote a single style; rather, it encompasses a wide spectrum of regional scenes and genres across the continent. Typical features include African polyrhythms, call-and-response vocals, cyclical guitar or keyboard ostinatos, and the use of Western band instruments (guitars, bass, drum kit, horns) and studio techniques. The idiom continually evolves through cross-pollination with African diasporic music (blues, jazz, R&B, hip-hop) and Caribbean currents (son cubano, calypso, salsa, reggae, zouk), as well as with global pop and electronic production. As such, African popular music is best understood as a living, pan-African ecosystem of styles rather than a fixed genre.