Studio Improv as Compositional Process Through Case Studies of Ghanaian Hiplife and Afrobeats
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
This study is an examination of the music and working practices of three Ghanaian music producers, Appietus and DJ Breezy—as in much non-Western music, the definitions of composition and improvisation continuously disrupt each other. The studio highlights this blending of processes where the hardware and software can form both the instruments and compositional tools. Hip-hop and electronic dance music rely heavily on improvisation through studio techniques that are idiomatic to the genre, including sampling, sequencing and looping new musical ideas or material from an existing recording. Text and rhythm in Hip-hop are well documented but compositional process involving harmonic and melodic analysis, as well as close sonic study of new production techniques are often overlooked. The music of minority composers of new genres is under represented in scholarship. Therefore, this article focuses to a greater extent on musical analysis and studio, improvisation and compositional processes, with supporting observations on broader cultural context. 
 
 The methodological approach in this article centers on transcriptions and music analysis, as well as research through interviews with the producers in Accra, Ghana. This blending of interview material and musical analysis (through transcription, reduction and ecological acoustics) examines distinct threads of Ghanaian and international music styles, their paths through different formal and informal networks of education and the environmental affects on their process. An analysis of these producers’ processes requires looking at both musical elements as well as the resources of education and environment, changing the way that we read these contexts by foregrounding the music itself. A brief history of Ghanaian music, from pre-independence to contemporary electronic dance music, including contemporary hiplife and afrobeats, is followed by case studies. In the case of Appietus’ music, transcriptions show Ghana’s unique highlife harmony and its idiomatic harmonic tendencies, whilst interview material on his process shows his unique methods of vocalization in combination with production tools that are informed by local formal and informal educational networks and the Internet. DJ Breezy’s vertically sparse, minimalist Hip-hop influenced afrobeats No. 1 hit, ‘Tonga,’ is analysed using ecological acoustics. In order to focus this paper, I argue that firstly, we rethink the relationship between improvisation and composition through the work of these producers, secondly, that we cannot analyze the music of these producers outside of context, we need to change the way in which we read the context, and thirdly, that we stop using a type of ethnography that exacerbates essentialism.
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Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,001 | 0,003 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,001 | 0,003 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,001 |
| Science ouverte | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».