The chairman of the Rastafari Council of Ghana has objected to the idea of promoting highlife as the only genre in the Ghanaian music industry and says he is not sure of what the outcome will be in finally established.
According to Him, he said the fixation on only highlife to him is limiting, hence encouraging all Ghanaian industry players to help expand their creativity which he thinks will embrace with the western music. He made the statement on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z while responding to a question on the right genre to represent Ghana on the international level.
Bosco cited America as a country that has many genres like jazz, RnB, funk, and country among others. He said even Highlife has Western influences, a reason musicians should be allowed to experiment with rhythms.
“As a national, we need to appreciate that it is sort of generational. So the kids today sing more with hiplife and the derivatives like Afrobeats. The other day I was hearing someone say Amapiano highlife,” he told the host Kwame Dadzie.
“The point I am making is that as a people we will not be represented by only highlife. What we need to do is to open up to our creativity. Because the conversation shows what we call highlife today is a fusion of African rhythms and Western rhythms, played with Western instruments,” Bosco added.
The dominance of Afrobeats on the global music scene has ignited the conversation about what can be done in Ghana to achieve a similar feat.
For many people, highlife, a music genre of Ghanaian origin is the only true identity of Ghana’s music industry.
In the meantime, highlife is being considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to be listed as an intangible heritage. If this goes through, Ghanaians will duly be credited as the owners of the music genre.
