African Music: The Rhythm of the World

Annotated Bibliography

This is an online news source that has a huge entertainment/music section. It regularly contains feature articles on musicians, new music, and music events taking place throughout Africa. This is a good place to keep up with current African music news.

2. The African Music Encyclopedia. "The African Music Encyclopedia," Home page online. Available from http://africanmusic.org/; Internet; Accessed 25 Sept 2001.

The African Music Encyclopedia is the closest thing to a comprehensive reference source on the Internet. It contains a biography section that can be searched either by artist name or by country, and it also contains, among other things, a glossary of African music styles.

3. African Music Group. "African Music Discussion Group," Home page online. Available from http://www.africanmusicgroup.com/; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

This site contains a discussion group for African music. They welcome anyone who wants to join as long as they love African Music. The group originated in Germany and has since grown to include members from all over the world. On the list they discuss anything pertinent to African Music.

4. African Music Home page. "African Music Home page," Home page online. Available from http://biochem.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~endo/africa.html; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

Although not complete for all of Africa, this is an in-depth page of discographies of musicians from both Senegal and Nigeria. It lists hundreds of releases, and demonstrates how prolific some African artists are. This focus also provides a better understanding of how much music is available from one region of Africa.

5. African Music Resources Online. "African Music Resources Online," Home page online. Available from http://ntama.uni-mainz.de/~ama/archive/ama_links.html; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

This is a good site to go for further information about African music online. It is an extensive link site, and although many of the sites in this bibliography have link pages, this one is the best organized that I have seen.

6. Africanhiphop.com. "Africanhiphop.com," Home page online. Available from http://www.africanhiphop.com/; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

Hip hop is one of the most popular styles of African music among urban youth in Africa. This page provides news, interviews, lyrics, and discographies of hip hop groups throughout Africa. It also has several pre-recorded radio shows with hours of music featuring current musicians.

7. Africanspice.com. "African Radio on the Web," Home page online. Available from http://www.africanspice.com/; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

This is a radio station from the United States that plays African Music. The Web site also functions as a sort of e-magazine, with links to articles about African musicians and artists that are popular in Africa right now, or musicians who are touring the U.S.

8. Africassette Music. "Africassette Music," Home page online. Available from http://www.africassette.com/; Internet; Accessed 18 Oct 2001.

This is an online commercial music store that not only sells African music, but is a record company that records and releases music. This is a good place for purchasing CD's, especially those that are not generally carried by American music stores. If you are browsing for music, each entry in the catalog contains a synopsis of the CD.

9. Afropop Worldwide. "Afropop Worldwide," Home page online. Available from http://www.afropop.org/; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

Afropop Worldwide is a world-renowned radio show from National Public Radio. It covers music of both Africa and the African diaspora, and comes on weekly across the U.S., and now on the Internet through any NPR stations have the show and stream on the Internet. Afropop is a great asset, and contains many articles and special shows that can be listened to directly off the Internet. It also has an extensive database of articles, artists, background information about countries in Africa, and discographies of musicians.

10. AllAfrica.com "AllAfrica.com - Music," Home page online. Available from http://allafrica.com/music/; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

This is a news source that keeps an extensive database of music news throughout Africa. It is a good place to go to keep up on current events in African music.

11. Cobb, Justin Et. Al. "A Historical Study of West African Music," Home page online. Available from http://asuwlink.uwyo.edu/~cobster/; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

Cobb and several other students from the University of Wyoming wrote this paper for a class. It is a good overview of the music of Western Africa, and focuses on such topics as voice, instruments used, how music is treated by society, and what role traditional African music plays in modern music of Africa.

12. Clark, R. "African Language Resources," Home page online. Available from http://home.acceleration.net/clark/Links/Lexicon.htm; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

Although this page does not directly deal with African Music, it brings an important facet of music and anything else from Africa to light - language. Without understanding any African languages, an African music fan would miss out on what musicians are singing when it is in their native language, and any other verbal or written communication coming from parts of Africa.

13. Dandemutande. "Dandemutande: A resource for Zimbabwean music worldwide," Home page online. Available from http://www.dandemutande.com/; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

This is a great site for Zimbabwean music. If every country in Africa had a site like this dedicated to its music, online African music resources would be much more extensive and easy to find.

14. Djembe -L FAQ. "Djembe -L FAQ," Home page online. Available from http://www.drums.org/djembefaq/; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

One of the most prominent features of traditional African music is the rhythm. Drums are almost synonymous with Africa. One of the most popular African drums for drummers around the world is the Djembe. This Web site provides a list-serv, FAQ and general information page about Djembes, including how to take care of them, play them, make one, and re-skin one. This page was probably linked to more pages that I came across in my searches than any other source so far.

15. Hodges, Richard. "Drum Is the Ear of God: Africa's Inner World of Music: Music and Inner Life," Home page online. Available from http://www.bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/rhodges/html/Ear.html; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

This is an article about the spirituality and social aspects of traditional African music. It focuses on the meanings and roots of music played in rural areas throughout Africa. This is a good article for those trying to understand the indigenous traditions out of which both traditional and modern African music come.

16. International Library of African Music. "International Library of African Music," Home page online. Available from http://archive.ilam.ru.ac.za/home.asp; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

This is a research institution in South Africa that is dedicated to studying African music and the oral traditions of Africa in a scientific manner. It was founded in 1954 in South Africa, and has since then has been amassing collections of sound recordings from throughout Africa, publishes a journal, and facilitates research and study of African music. This is a great place for those who want to do more than casually listen to or read about African music and musicians.

17. Ladzekpo, C.K. "African music and dance," Home page online. Available from http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/~ladzekpo/index.html; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

C.K. Ladzekpo is the director of the African music program at University of California Berkeley, and is one of the foremost experts on African music in the world. He is also a performer himself. This site contains cultural articles pertaining to music, information about dance and drum ensembles, music samples, and many other items pertaining to Ladzekpo and his studies.

18. Mbira Home Page. "Mbira Home Page," Home page online. Available from http://www.tiac.net/users/smurungu/; Internet; Accessed 25 Sept 2001.

This is a Web site dedicated to the Mbira, a small musical instrument, also known as a thumb piano, which originated in Zimbabwe and is now known throughout the world. It contains a history of the Mbira, what different kinds there are, and lists of musicians and albums with mbira music.

19. Nas, Paul. "West-African Percussion Rhythms from Guinea and Surrounding Countries," Home page online. Available from http://members.tripodnet.nl/Wappages/; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

These pages contain detailed annotations and samples of different African drum rhythms. A large amount of them are included, and they are listed by name with a short history of each rhythm and when it was used incuded.

20. Re-connection project. "music.org.za," Home page online. Available from http://www.music.org.za/; Internet; Accessed 28 Sept 2001.

This site was linked to many other pages that I visited. It is a comprehensive biographical database of popular current South African musicians and performers, complete with links to official Web pages and pictures. The entry for Miriam Makeba, for instance, contains a two page biography and a four page chronology. This is a great site for learning about different artists in South Africa.

21. Washburne, Christopher. "Clave: The African Roots of Salsa," Home page online. Available from http://www.jazzcorner.com/washburne/; Internet; Accessed 8 Oct 2001.

Washburne's article is about Latin American music, especially salsa, but it relates to African music, and looks to African rhythms for the roots of salsa. Readers can begin to grasp the influence African music has had on different musical styles.

22. Zvakapressa Zimbabwe. "ZBC Broadcast," Home page online. Available from http://www.zvakapressa.com/Jokes/ZvaLive/zvalive.html; Internet; Accessed 26 Sept 2001.

Due to the capabilities of the Internet, modes of communication that we often take for granted in our own culture suddenly can bring us together with people on the other side of the world. This page has two radio stations from Zimbabwe that can be listened to over the Internet. They both have some talk shows and play some music, but the music is primarily African music, as opposed to some African Web radio stations, which tend to play a large amount of music from the United States.