Jùjú is a style of

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

, derived from traditional

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

. The name juju from the

word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown". Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which is a form of magic and the use of magic objects, common in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

and other

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

nations. It evolved in the 1900s in urban clubs across the countries, and was believed to have been created by Ababababaa Babatunde King, popularly known as

Tunde King Tunde King (born 24 August 1910), was a Nigerian musician credited as the founder of Jùjú music. He had a great influence on Nigerian popular music. Lagos in the 1920s and 1930s was peopled by a mixture of local Yoruba people and returnees from ...

. The first jùjú recordings were by King and Ojoge Daniel in the 1920s, when King pioneered it. The lead and predominant instrument of jùjú is the ''Iya Ilu'',

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...

. Some juju musicians were itinerant, including early pioneers Ojoge Daniel, Irewole Denge and the "blind minstrel"

Kokoro is a novel by the Japanese author Natsume Sōseki. It was first published in 1914 in serial form in the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun''. The title translated literally means "heart". The word contains shades of meaning—notions of the he ...

. Afro-juju is a style of Nigerian popular music, a mixture of jùjú music and

Afrobeat Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre that involves the combination of West African musical styles (such as traditional Yoruba music and highlife) and American funk, jazz, and soul influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersectin ...

. Its most famous exponent was

Shina Peters Sir Shina Peters (born 30 May 1958) is a Nigerian Jùjú musician. Life Born Oluwashina Akanbi Peters in Ogun State, Peters' career in music began at a young age when he played with friends under the handle Olushina and His Twelve Fantastic Bro ...

, who was so popular that the press called the phenomenon "Shinamania". Afro-juju's peak of popularity came in the early 1990s.

History

Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, electric instruments began to be included, and pioneering musicians like Earnest Olatunde Thomas (

Tunde Nightingale Earnest Olatunde Thomas (10 December 1922 – 1981), known as Tunde Nightingale or The Western Nightingale, was a Nigerian singer and guitarist, best known for his unique jùjú music style, following in the tradition of Tunde King. Born in Iba ...

), Fatai Rolling Dollar, I. K. Dairo,

Dele Ojo Dele Ojo (10 July 1938 – 3 May 2018) was a Nigerian musician and performer. He is revered as one of the musicians to have spread and popularized the Jùjú genre of music. Career James Ogundele Ojo was born on 10 July 1938 in the village of ...

, Ayinde Bakare, Adeolu Akinsanya, King Sunny Adé., and Ebenezer Obey made the genre the most popular in Nigeria, incorporating new influences like

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

and Afrobeat and creating new subgenres like yo-pop. Some new generation juju artistes include Oludare Olateju also known as Ludare, the son of Sabada juju music creator; Emperor Wale Olateju and

Bola Abimbola Bola Abimbola (born c. 1968) is a vocalist, recording artist, and record producer from Lagos, Nigeria. Musical career Abimbola's career in music began at the age of nineteen with his first recording, ''Silifa Bamijo'', which featured a Yorub ...

. Although juju music, like

apala Apala (or akpala) is a music genre originally developed by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, during the country's history as a colony of the British Empire. It is a percussion-based style that originated in the late 1930s. The rhythms of apala grew ...

, sakara,

fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefec ...

and waka was created by

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, the music itself remains secular. King Sunny Adé was the first to include the

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

, which had previously been used only in Hawaiian music and American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

Performance venue

Jùjú music is performed primarily by artists from the southwestern region of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, where the

are the most numerous ethnic group. In performance, audience members commonly shower jùjú musicians with paper money; this tradition is known as "spraying". Shina Peters was awarded in 1990, but he was panned by music critics. Music researcher Christpher Alan Waterman said that one of the centers of the performance of jùjú music is in Ibadan. Most jùjú musicians are based in the zone of market forces. There are several contexts in which jùjú music is performed. Music was performed at hotels,

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gen ...

, and university. The Hotels serve music halls and dance halls also. Most activity takes place after nine p.m., and the hotels are the center of

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its ...

's economic structure. Another context in which jùjú music is played is at celebrations called àríyá. King Sunny Adé performed at àríyá with his socio aesthetics. King Sunny Ade ariya
Retrieved 26 January 2021 These celebrations are parties which celebrate the naming of a baby, weddings, birthdays, funerals, title-taking, ceremonies and the launching of new property or business enterprises. Live music is crucial to the proper functioning of an àríyá.

References

External links

King Sunny Ade interview
by Jason Gross from Perfect Sound Forever site (June 1998)
"Sparkling Prince of Juju Music Called Ludare"
'' Thisday'', October 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Juju Music African popular music Nigerian music Nigerian styles of music Yoruba music

History

Performance venue

See also

References

External links