Kenyan Music

Trends in Kenyan Popular Music

by Douglas B. Paterson, Ph.D.(1)

Kenya's pop music is undoubtedly one of most diverse in Africa. Unfortunately, by the time her music has passed through the long filtering process of the international "market," only a handful of titles make it on to the this amazing diversity who must rely on "the market" to bring Kenyan pop music to their local record shop, this amazing diversity of pop sounds the best kept secrets of Africa. Certainly, for those taking the time to search out record shops in Europe and North America, one will likely come up with a few CDs of Kenyan music. However, these hardly do justice to the amazing diversity of pop sounds heard on the streets or in the clubs of Nairobi. The purpose of this review is to introduce the reader to the major forms of popular music found in Kenya today and to provide some of its historical background. For those who may wish to hear examples of this music, several compact discs featuring Kenyan styles (and available internationally) have been cited.

Here are some of Kenya Finest

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