Author: Oluseun Sunday Odusanya, PhD
Journal of Music Composition
Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 128-142, Oct. 2026
Received: 12 August 2026 |
Accepted: 15 Sept. 2026 |
Published: 24 Oct. 2026
Abstract
Afrobeats, the contemporary Nigerian pop genre that emerged in late-1990s Lagos, draws on jùjú, highlife, hip hop, and electronic production while remaining distinct from the earlier Afrobeat tradition. Despite its global commercial success, Afrobeats has received limited compositional analysis, with most scholarship focusing on political and cultural themes rather than musical structure. This study investigates how selected Afrobeats works integrate indigenous Nigerian musical idioms within modern studio practice. Four compositions released between 2015 and 2023 were examined through close listening and score transcription, and the resulting data were organised using thematic analysis. Three core
compositional paradigms were identified: the translation of Yoruba talking-drum rhythmic logic into programmed digital percussion, the use of pentatonic and hexatonic melodic materials rooted in indigenous tonal systems, and the adaptation of call-and-response structures within contemporary harmonic frameworks. The findings show that Afrobeats
extends indigenous Nigerian compositional practice, offering significant implications for music pedagogy and for recognising the genre as a legitimate field of African art-music scholarship.
Keywords: Afrobeats, Nigerian music composition, indigenous musical traditions, tonal identity
Copyright © 2026. The author retains the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.
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Author
Oluseun Sunday Odusanya, PhD