The music of Liberia uses many tribal beats and often one of the native dialects, or

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

. Liberian music includes traditional Gbema music, as well as the popular genre Hipco.

Gbema music or traditional music

Liberian music makes particular use of vocal harmony, repetition and

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

song structure as well as such typical West African elements as

ululation Ululation (), , is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid back and forth movement of the tongue and the uvula The palati ...

and the

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

typical of

rhythm in Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan African music is characterised by a "strong rhythmic interest" that exhibits common characteristics in all regions of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as constit ...

. Christian music was introduced to Liberia by American missionaries and Christian songs are now sung in a style that mixes American harmonies with West African language, rhythm and the call-and-response format. Traditional music is performed at weddings,

naming ceremonies A naming ceremony is a stage at which a person or persons is officially assigned a name. The methods of the practice differ over cultures and religions. The timing at which a name is assigned can vary from some days after birth to several months o ...

, royal events and other special occasions, as well as ordinary

children's song A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...

work song A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. Definitions and ...

s and

lullabies A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...

Popular music

Highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (British colony), history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions ...

music is very popular in Liberia, as elsewhere in West Africa. It is a combination of North American, West African and Latin American styles, and emerged in the 1950s in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and Liberia, especially among the Liberian

Kru people The Kru, Kroo, Krou or Kuru are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to western Ivory Coast and eastern Liberia. They migrated and settled along various points of the West African coast, notably Freetown, Sierra Leone, but also the Ivo ...

, who were sailors that played Spanish guitar,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

pennywhistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

. Past and present musicians include

Princess Hawa Daisy Moore Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

Fatu Gayflor Fatu Gayflor (born 1966) is a Liberian singer. Dubbed "Princess Fatu Gayflor, the golden voice of Liberia", she has performed at major music venues and festivals throughout the world and has made a number of recordings. Born in the village of Ka ...

Nimba Burr Nimba may refer to: * Mount Nimba, a mountain along the border of Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea in West Africa * Nimba County in Liberia * Nimba, an alternative name for the neem ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, nimtree or Indian lilac ...

, Tejajlu,

Morris Dorley Morris may refer to: Places Australia * St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manit ...

Yatta Zoe Yatta may refer to: * Yatta, Hebron, a Palestinian city * Yatta Constituency, an electoral constituency in Kenya * Yatta Plateau, Tsavo East National Park, Kenya * "Yatta" (song), a 2001 Japanese parody song See also * Yada ** Yada Yada * Yot ...

Anthony "Experience" Nagbe Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

Gebah Swaray, Kandakai Duncan and Miatta Fahnbulleh. Of these, Dorley deserves special notice for having spearheaded a movement to create a national Liberian identity, alongside musicians such as Anthony "Experience" Nagbe. Dorley's popular songs include "Grand Gedeh County" and "Who Are You Baby". The country's most renowned radio station is ELBC, or the Liberian Broadcasting System. Rap and pop music are also performed in indigenous languages across the country. In 1963, President Tubman set up the new Cape-Palmas Military Band (CPMB). Israeli bandmaster Aharon Shefi formed and conducted a 56-piece concert and marching band that performed Liberian,

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 ...

and

universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

folk and church music. The

CPMB The General Council of Bucharest (Romanian language, Romanian: ''Consiliul General al Municipiului București''; also known as the ''Consiliul Popular al Municipiului București'' from 1968 to 1989) is the legislative body of the Bucharest, Munici ...

has performed on January 1, 1964, at President Tubman's inauguration in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

. Among the pieces played were Highlife, original marches by the late Liberian composer Victor Bowya, the National Anthem and "The Lone Star Forever". The CPMB had also performed in churches, schools, holidays and military parades and official events.

Hipco

Liberia has a uniquely Liberian rap genre called Hipco, or "Co". The "co" in the genre is short for the Liberian dialect

Kolokwa Liberian Kreyol is an Atlantic English-lexicon creole language spoken in Liberia.Liberian English

. Hipco is usually performed in Liberian English or the local vernacular. Hipco evolved in the 1980s and has always had a social and political bent. In the 1990s it continued to develop through the

civil wars A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

.Ashoka
"'Hipco' Is the Soundtrack of Monrovia's Post-War Youth"
''Vice'', 2 April 2014. Hipco music was becoming popular in 2000., and as of 2017, it was the popular music genre of Liberia, "serving as the medium through which rappers speak against societal ills, including injustice and corruption."

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

has worked with Hipco artists to release Hipco songs on

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

prevention, with several of the songs becoming popular on radio in the country in 2014. Among high-profile Hipco artists are

Takun J Jonathan Koffa (born May 14, 1981), known professionally as Takun J (often stylized as Takun-J), is a Liberian rapper, songwriter and activist. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of hipco, a politically-charged music genre. The Liberian Gende ...

References

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