| Abstrakt: |
The chapter examines four twentieth-century Ghanaian neo-traditional music genres (Ga, Akan, Dagomba, and Ewe) that are rural/communal performance traditions but have integrated elements of urban popular music. As a result, they reflect and articulate both ethnic identity and socio-political processes related to contemporary city life. It is thus inappropriate to apply to these neo-traditional genres older eurocentric 'modernization' models that advocate just one form of developmental change: westernization. Rather, the four music styles demonstrate 'multiple modernities' that reflect the unique character of their particular ethnic communities; they emerged in the context of urban-rural feedback, in line with more recent developmental theories; and their performers are not passive recipients of change emanating from the 'centre', but 'cultural brokers' who actively select elements of commercial popular performance suitable for their communal music-making. These genres thus provide a test case for the newer 'liberation' and 'glocalization' developmental theories that focus on how people on the 'periphery' adapt imported Western norms and technologies to their own indigenous folkways and national culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
