Country music in Nigeria has enjoyed high levels of popularity since first being introduced to the country in the middle of the 20th century. Within Nigeria, country music is generally classified as "sentimental music" - a Nigeria-specific genre that includes non-country musical acts.
History
Country music originated in the
southern United States in the 1920s where it evolved as a fusion of
Appalachian music and
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
largely through the efforts of commercial record producers who sought to popularize traditional folk melodies from the rural
United States. Country is musically similar to
Western, although the latter tends to be more evocative of themes and imagery associated with the
western United States, particularly that of the
Old West era.
Country was introduced to
Nigeria in the middle 20th century by a combination of visiting
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
missionaries from the southern United States, by returning Nigerian expatriates, and by a
Don Williams-owned radio station that operated in the nation.
By the 1960s, the genre had become "a part of everyday Nigerian life".
As of the mid 1990s, country music remained highly popular among Nigerian radio listeners.
By the early 2010s, interest in country music had lessened in major metropolitan areas, but continued to enjoy popularity in
Middle Belt states, notably including
Plateau, whose state capital
Jos
Jos is a city in the north central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State.
During British ...
has been described as Nigeria's "home of country music".
American country singer
Jim Reeves, who died in 1964, has had a special staying power as a cultural icon in Nigeria and, as of the early 2010s, his recordings continued to be popular as a form of comfort music listened to in familial settings.
Nigerian music audiences have tended not to recognize country music as a unique genre but have grouped it into a constructed genre of "sentimental music" which has been described by
Public Radio International
Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States.
PRI was one of the main providers of programm ...
as a "catch-all category that essentially referred to everything Western that wasn’t dance music".
Local acts
As in other parts of Africa where country music is popular, country music in Nigeria is dominated by recordings from American artists.
However, a small number of Nigerian country and country-western musical acts have gained varying levels of popularity including Emma Ogosi, Ogak Jay Oke,
Bongos Ikwue, and Poor Charley Akaa.
See also
*
Nigeria–United States relations
*
Country music in Canada
*
Music of Nigeria
References
{{Country music
Country music