Music of Ghana

The most well-known form of Ghanaian music is highlife, which has become popular all across Africa and much of the rest of the world. Highlife arose among the coastal regions of Ghana and, to a lesser extent Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and other English-speaking West African colonies. In the 1920s, the word was coined to desribe the dancing of the English colonials to the regimented music of native bands. Eventually, the music, originally used only for military functions, began using native songs and kpanlogo rhythms.

Highlife has since diversified into related forms, including mixtures of highlife and reggae (reggae highlife), hip hop (hiplife), as well as burger highlife (from the Ghanaian immigrant community in Germany) and highlife fusion.