Azonto is not a music genre: the things Ghanaians need to know about what a music genre is...

[WRITTEN BY: George Awiadem Maclean  EMAIL: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.]

Ghanaians have indeed musically battered and butchered the exact meaning of Azonto (and the so-called Hiplife, Twi pop, GH rap etc.) --- with great and sheer naivety, of course --- for so long a time that it (Azonto) has virtually become a missing item on our 'chopping' list.

I have heard and still keep hearing the so-called music aficionados (DJs, presenters, musicians, music producers, 'entertainment critics/analysts', pundits and the like) goof and confuse themselves whilst they rather act like they know it all, or are the music "Messiahs" by stating, but with no tangible reasons whatsoever, that Azonto is a music genre.

Some even think Azonto is a combination of both worlds: music and dance of Ghanaian origin!

And quite unfortunately, too, the very few ones who have come close to affirming the fact that Azonto is not a music genre have almost always stopped short of explaining why it isn't so.

And how about our old musician folk who ought to know better as pioneers of the game but rather keep muddying the waters by claiming Azonto is killing Highlife as if indeed, another music genre has been born???

Seriously, our not being able to simply make out whether or not, Azonto is a music genre is very simple: most of us (Ghanaians, Nigerians and the like) have very little or no idea about what a genre of music is!

And this 'canker' of ours doesn't only lie with Azonto but the so-called Hiplife, Twi Pop, GH Rap, Afro-Pop, etc., and I would soon be dealing expansively with the crap and nonsense about all of them in our subsequent feature articles.

I bet you wouldn't want to miss the this and why it is even suicidal to attempt a definition for Hiplife, would you??!

Now it looks as though any hunger-stricken Ghanaian 'artiste' who wakes up from his deep slumber can just do any wacky thing he thinks is 'something new' (and they rightly think so because there's none to correct them), and when it becomes an instant hit by whatever 'divine intervention', then suddenly, whatever name he gives to it becomes a music genre! Amazing, isn't it?!

And oh, how about this one called "Akayida" which Guru and the like babyishly think must be forced and be metamorphosed into becoming another music genre?! Oh Ghana 'abrε ampa'!!!

Glory be to GOD that the "boys/girls abrε" (boys/girls are tired) phrase hasn't been tagged as a music genre yet! Amen!!!

First of all, let's note that music and genre are two distinct words with one describing the other.

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