- Afropop: Juju – History of the music style that’s been so popular in Nigeria since the mid-twentieth century.
- AMG: Juju – Overview of the style with lists of related styles, important albums, and key artists.
- Afropop: King Sunny Adé – Detailed biography, with photographs, of the Nigerian musician.
- AMG: King Sunny Ade – Biography, discography, and related artists.
- Mesa Recordings: King Sunny Ade – Biography and discography with audio samples.
- World Music Portal: King Sunny Ade – Biography and discography.
For many years the most popular style in Nigeria, juju music evolved from Yoruba folklore and a variety of international elements. Early in the century, Lagos was a place where local peoples encountered freed slaves from the New World. Together they created a recreational music that came to be known as palm wine music, as it usually accompanied drinking. Banjos, guitars, shakers and hand drums supported lilting topical songs and produced local celebrities, notably «Baba» Tunde King, apparently the first to call his music juju.
British-recorded 78s of early work by Tunde King, Ogoge Daniel, JO «Speedy» Araba and especially, Tunde Nightingale established the core repertoire that would shape this fast-evolving style. Electricity and the ability to amplify voices and strings created the possibility of bringing in heavier percussion, in particular the Yoruba taking drum, or gangan. Starting in the late `50s, I.K. Dairo became the first juju singer to exploit these possibilities adding electric guitars and an accordion, which he played himself, to the mix. Dairo was followed in the `60s by Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, and in the `70s, by King Sunny Ade and his African Beats.
The competition between Obey and KSA, as Nigerians know Ade, engaged the public and fueled rapid evolution of the juju sound as trap drums, pedal steel guitar, synthesizers, and more and more percussion instruments joined the lineup. By the time KSA first toured internationally in the early `80s, juju could compete with that era’s best rock music for its force of expression, theatricality and visceral impact. With some 20 musicians on stage, Ade quickly won a loyal audience and effectively launched the international Afropop phenomenon. Other African artists, like Miriam Makeba and Manu Dibango, had made a splash, but after KSA began touring, a larger awareness of African music began to dawn. As such, juju holds a unique position in the history of all African pop.
Jùjú is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. It evolved in the 1920s in urban clubs across the countries. The first jùjú recordings were by Tunde King and Ojoge Daniel from the 1920s.
Following World War II, electric instruments began to be included, and pioneering musicians like I. K. Dairo, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey made the genre the most popular in Nigeria, incorporating new influences like funk, reggae and Afrobeat and creating new subgenres like yo-pop. This music, unlike apala and sakara, was not created by Muslim Yoruba, it is secular. Ade was the first to include the pedal steel guitar, which had previously been used only in American country music.
Jùjú music is performed primarily by artists from the southwestern region of Nigeria, where the Yoruba are the most numerous ethnic group. In performance, audience members commonly shower jùjú musicians with paper money; this tradition is known as «spraying.»
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