Doing foreign genres will not give us a global appeal, focus on Highlife and Hiplife - DJ Ashmen

Popular Ghanaian DJ, DJ Ashmen, also known as Michael Mensah Ashley, has called on Ghanaian musicians to focus on promoting their unique music styles, such as Highlife and Hiplife, rather than adopting foreign genres in an attempt to gain global attention.

As reported by graphic.com.gh, DJ Ashmen stated that countries like Jamaica have successfully built a strong music identity with Reggae and Dancehall, and Ghana should do the same with its traditional sounds.

“Forget global attention with ‘adopted’ music sounds that you are doing. We have a unique music identity, Highlife and Hiplife, and we must be intentional about getting it out there.

“I don’t know where the strong belief that doing foreign genres will give us global appeal is coming from. As a small country, Jamaica has been able to build a strong music identity with Reggae and Dancehall, and we are happy to associate with it.

“So the question now is, why are we trying so hard to sound American, Jamaican, and even Nigerian? Is it that we don’t value what we have?” he queried.

At a stakeholder meeting earlier in July, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo, the Executive Secretary of the Creative Arts Agency (CAA), pointed out the need for Ghana to develop a unique sound to compete in the global market.

Supporting this suggestion, DJ Ashmen said that the absence of a unique music sound has hindered the industry's global appeal and called on Ghanaian artistes to value and promote their traditional music styles.

“We are here thinking our own Highlife is ‘colo’ because it’s local and old, but we are happy to say we are doing Afrobeats. What is Afrobeats? Ghana has even lost the right to claim Afrobeats because we weren’t proud of our Highlife, which is undoubtedly the root of Afrobeats.

“And we continue to shout about global appeal and attention when the solution is staring us right in our faces. Like I’ve always said, the music industry lacks identity, and it’s very bad for the future of the industry and the so-called international appeal we are all fighting for,” he stated.

ID/NOQ

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