DJs like the late John Peel and Charlie Gillet were the first to give a platform for “world music”. Of the myriad styles from around the globe encompassed by that term, the one which really crossed over into the mainstream of Western consciousness was the dancefloor-friendly sound of Afrobeat. Highlife did not get the same international recognition, but Fela created his Afrobeat by blending Jazz with Highlife music.

Itself a hybrid musical style, nothing lends itself to fusion with other music quite like Highlife. In simple terms, Highlife is a mixture of indigenous African rhythms with Western instrumentation. It was named “Highlife” because it originated with ballroom bands playing American swing style music to the hoi polloi at exclusive gatherings, but it began to evolve as Ghanaian musicians had more and more freedom to incorporate their own rhythms as the independence movement gathered momentum.

“Highlife” became the umbrella term for all popular music in West Africa. There are two distinct styles — guitar Highlife and brass band Highlife — but common to both is the ethos of fusion. When Ghanaians started hearing Jazz, Soul, Rock and Funk coming out of America in the 60s and 70s, they quickly absorbed these influences, influences which themselves were of African origin. This was the so-called “boomerang effect”.

When people hear Highlife and Afrobeat for the first time, it surprises them how familiar it sounds — similar to the classic American soul, funk and psychedelic rock with which they are familiar, only with a more exotic flavour mixed in.

Around the turn of the millenium there was something of a goldrush on vintage African records. DJs like Duncan Brooker, Miles Cleret and Frank Gossner started digging in West Africa for rare grooves, and Western audiences got their first taste of music which had been long forgotten. That music has been bringing dancefloors to life ever since. The African music scene is still niche, but more and more people are coming into its discovery.