Becoming a "Society of the Spectacle": Ghanaian Hiplife Music and Corporate Recolonization

Hiplife music in Ghana, West Africa, is explored not merely as an adaptation of hip hop, but as a revision of Ghana's own century-old popular music known globally as highlife; yet it is subject to the same postcolonial, global, and neoliberal corporate "recolonization" to which other...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPopular music and society Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 187 - 209
Main Author Osumare, Halifu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bowling Green Routledge 15.03.2014
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Adaptation
Africa
Artists
Capitalism
Colonialism
Ghana
Ghanaian Music
Globalization
Hip hop
Hip hop music
Modernity
Modernization
Music
Neoliberalism
Popular music
Privatization
Telecommunications
Ghana
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Summary:Hiplife music in Ghana, West Africa, is explored not merely as an adaptation of hip hop, but as a revision of Ghana's own century-old popular music known globally as highlife; yet it is subject to the same postcolonial, global, and neoliberal corporate "recolonization" to which other sectors of Africa societies are subject. I dissect neoliberalism as the global free market agenda acting as a new form of colonialism in Africa through examining Ghana's ubiquitous telecommunications companies. Their lucrative corporate relationships with hiplife artists allow me to explore the meaning of modernity in Africa, as well as the place of the Structural Adjustment programs of the IMF and World Bank. I conclude that hiplife music has given Ghanaian youths a counter-hegemonic voice while enabling their gainful employment, but, while doing so, hiplife music necessarily had to involve itself in capitalism's global dominance with increasing corporate privatization in Ghana and Africa in general.
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ISSN:0300-7766
1740-1712
DOI:10.1080/03007766.2012.747262