Examining the Research Gap in Studies of Nigerian Folk Music and Its Role in Contemporary Afrobeats

The musical roots of contemporary Afrobeats are located in a complex synthesis of highlife, juju, fuji, Afrobeat, and multiple folk music traditions from across Nigeria's ethnic communities, yet the specific contributions of indigenous folk music traditions to contemporary Afrobeats have received insufficiently systematic scholarly documentation. This study examined the research gap in scholarly documentation of indigenous Nigerian folk music influences on Afrobeats through scoping review and preliminary ethnomusicological analysis. A scoping review of 11 databases identified 142 publications from 2018 to 2024 on Afrobeats as a musical genre, of which only 23 (16.2 percent) addressed specific folk music roots beyond broad characterisations of West African musical heritage. Most existing research focused on Afrobeats as a global commercial phenomenon rather than as a product of specific Nigerian folk music traditions. Preliminary ethnomusicological analysis compared rhythmic, melodic, and timbral characteristics of selected Afrobeats productions with documented folk music recordings from Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Tiv, and Ijaw traditions, identifying specific structural borrowings that current scholarship has not systematically documented. The analysis confirmed that Tiv kwagh-hir rhythms, Ijaw water-spirit drum patterns, and Efik traditional song structures are present in identifiable Afrobeats productions but have been almost entirely unacknowledged in critical scholarship. The study proposes a comprehensive ethnomusicological research programme to systematically trace folk music inputs into contemporary Afrobeats and recommends specialist documentation collaborations between Nigerian universities and the music industry.

Keywords: folk music, Afrobeats roots, ethnomusicology, Nigerian music heritage, research gap