The music of the Cameroon includes diverse traditional and modern musical genres. The best-known contemporary genre is makossa, a popular style that has gained fans across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and its related dance craze

bikutsi Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaoundé. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century in West Africa. It is primarily dance music. ...

. The

pirogue A pirogue ( or ), also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish , which comes from the Carib '. Description The term 'pirogue' does n ...

sailors of

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the com ...

are known for a kind of singing called ngoso which has evolved into a kind of modern music accompanied by zanza,

balafon The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now f ...

, and various

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Traditional music

The ethnicities of Cameroon include an estimated 250 distinct

ethnic groups An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

in five regional-cultural divisions. An estimated 38% of the population are Western highlanders–

Semi-Bantu Semi-Bantu or Semibantu is an outdated term used for specific inhabitants of the Western grassfields of Cameroon (portions of the Adamawa, West, Northwest, and Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed comp ...

or grassfielders including the

Bamileke The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon. Languages The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lan ...

Bamum Bamum, also spelled Bamoum, Bamun, or Bamoun, may refer to: *The Bamum people *The Bamum kingdom *The Bamum language *The Bamum script The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by Ibrahim Njoya, ...

, and many smaller

Tikar The Tikar (also Tikari, Tige, Tigar, Tigre, Tikali) are a central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of ...

groups in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each s ...

. 12% are coastal tropical forest peoples, including the Bassa, Duala, and many smaller groups in the

southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. The southern tropical forest peoples (18%) include the

Beti-Pahuin The Beti-Pahuin are a Bantu ethnic group located in rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual clans, they all share a c ...

and their sub-groups the Bulu and

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fa ...

, the

Maka Maka or MAKA may refer to: * Maká, a Native American people in Paraguay ** Maká language, spoken by the Maká * Maka (satrapy), a province of the Achaemenid Empire * Maka, Biffeche, capital of the kingdom of Biffeche in pre-colonial Senegal * Mak ...

and

Njem The Njyem (or Njem or Ndjem) are an ethnic group inhabiting the rain forest zone of southern Cameroon and northern Republic of the Congo. In Cameroon, the Njyem live along the road running south from Lomié, passing the government center of N ...

, as well as, the

Baka Baka, baká or BAKA may refer to: Ethnicities and languages * Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), an African ethnic group * Baka people (Congo and South Sudan), an African ethnic group * Baka language, a dialect cluster of Cameroon and Gabon * Baka ...

pygmies. In the semi-arid northern regions (the

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid cli ...

) and central highlands the

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

(french: Peul or ; ff, Fulɓe) form an estimated 14% of Cameroonians, while the

Kirdi The Kirdi () are the many cultures and ethnic groups who inhabit northwestern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. The term was applied to various peoples who had not converted to Islam at the time of colonization and was a pejorative, although ...

(unbelievers) are a general category, comprising 18% of the population, of various mainly

Chadic The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken in parts of the Sahel. They include 150 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, southern Niger, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Ca ...

and Adamawa speakers.

Beti

The

Beti Beti may refer to: People * Mongo Beti (1932–2001), Cameroonian writer * Beti George (born 1939), Welsh television and radio broadcaster * Beti Jones (1919–2006), Scottish social worker * Beti Kamya-Turwomwe (born 1955), Ugandan businesswoma ...

, or Ewondo, live in the area around

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

and south into

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

. They are best known for

music, which has been popularized and become a rival for the more urban and accessible makossa of

. The name can be loosely translated as ''beating the ground continuously''. Bikutsi, characterized by an intense 6/8 rhythm, is played at Beti gatherings including parties, funerals, and weddings. Beti gatherings fall into two major categories: *'' Ekang phase'': the time when imaginary, mythological, and spiritual issues are discussed *''Bikutsi phase'': when real-life issues are discussed A double-sided

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...

with

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed ...

amplification called the mvet is used during these ceremonies by Beti storytellers, who are viewed as using the mvet as an instrument of God to educate the people. The Ekang phase is intensely musical and usually lasts all night. There are poetic recitations accompanied by clapping and dancing, with interludes for improvised and sometimes obscene performances on the

(a type of

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

). These interludes signal the shift to the bikutsi phase which is much less strictly structured than Ekang. During bikutsi, women dance and sing along with the balafon, and lyrics focus on real-life problems, as well as sexual fantasies. These female choruses are an integral part of bikutsi, and their intense dancing and screams are characteristic of the genre. Another type of ceremony is the mevungu, when women dance all night to abstain from sex during those hours for a period of nine days. The sso ritual is much-feared by Beti boys as it involves a series of tests to mark a boy's passage into manhood.

Modern popular music

The earliest recorded popular music from Cameroon comes from the 1930s, when the most popular styles were imported

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

and French-style

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

. In

, the most developed city in Cameroon,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

s and ambasse bey music were common, with performers like Lobe Lobe, Ebanda Manfred, and Nelle Eyoum finding a local audience. Ekambi Brillant and the first major Cameroonian hit, "N'Gon Abo," set the stage for the development of makossa. Post-independence in 1960, a local variant on palm wine music called

assiko The Assiko is a popular dance from the South of Cameroon. Originally based in the Bassa country, this rhythmed dance takes its name from two words: ISI, changed into ASSI, which means earth or ground; and KOO meaning foot. The Assiko is danced d ...

, was popular especially Jean Bikoko and Dikoume Bernard. The urbanization of Cameroon has had a major influence on the country's music. Migration to the city of Yaoundé, for example, was a major cause for the popularization of bikutsi music. During the 1950s, bars sprang up across the city to accommodate the influx of new inhabitants and soon became a symbol for Cameroonian identity in the face of colonialism. Balafon orchestras, consisting of 3-5 balafons and various percussion instruments (including the balafon, which is both a harmonic and percussive instrument) became common in the bars. Some of these orchestras, such as

Richard Band de Zoetele Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

, became quite popular in spite of scorn from the European elite.

1950s and 60s

The middle of the 20th century saw the popularization of a native

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

called ''bikutsi''. Bikutsi is based on a war rhythm played with various rattles and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s and

. Sung by women, bikutsi featured sexually explicit lyrics and songs about everyday problems. In a popularized form, bikutsi gained mainstream success in the 1950s.

Anne-Marie Nzié Anne-Marie Nzié (1932 – 24 May 2016) was a Cameroonian bikutsi singer. Biography Anne-Marie Nzié was born in Bibia, Lolodorf, Cameroon, in 1932.Messi Me Nkonda Martin and his band,

Los Camaroes LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significan ...

, who added

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

s and other new elements. Balafon orchestras had remained popular throughout the 1950s in Yaoundé's bar scene, but the audience demanded modernity, and the popular style at the time was unable to cope. Messi Martin was a Cameroonian guitarist who had been inspired to learn the instrument by listening to

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

-broadcasts from neighboring

, as well as

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

n, and

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba. ...

. Messi changed the electric guitar by linking the strings together with pieces of paper, thus giving the instrument a damper tone which emitted a "thudding" sound similar to the balafon. Messi's style was immediately popular, and his hits, like "Mengalla Maurice" and "Bekono Nga N'Konda," became radio favorites throughout the country beginning in the early 1960s. Further innovations followed, as Messi replaced the handclaps and sanza with a synthesizer and the foot-stamping 6/8 rhythm to

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

1970s

Later in the 1960s, modern makossa developed and became the most popular genre in Cameroon. Makossa is a type of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

, best known outside Africa for Manu Dibango, whose 1972 single "Soul Makossa" was an international hit. Outside of Africa, Dibango and makossa were only briefly popular, but the genre has produced several pan-African superstars through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Following Dibango, a wave of musicians electrified makossa in an attempt at making it more accessible outside of Cameroon. Another pop singer in 1970s Cameroon was

André-Marie Tala André-Marie or André Marie is a French compound given name. Notable people with the name include: * André Marie, French Radical politician. * André Marie Constant Duméril (1774-1860), a French zoologist * André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin (1783- ...

, a blind singer who had a pair of hits with "Sikati" and "Potaksima." By the 1970s, bikutsi performers like

Maurice Elanga Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...

, Les Veterans, and

Mbarga Soukous Mbarga is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Prince Nico Mbarga Nico Mbarga (1 January 1950 – 23 June 1997), better known as Prince Nico Mbarga, was a Cameroonian-Nigerian highlife musician, born to a Nigerian mother and a C ...

, added

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...

s and found controversy over pornographic lyrics.

Mama Ohandja Mama Ohandja is a Cameroonian singer, musical arranger, dancer and choreographer. In the early 1970s, he became the most prominent musician in the region to marry traditional music with modern international styles, combining tom-toms, traditional ...

also brought bikutsi to new audiences, especially in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The following decade, however, saw Les Tetes Brulées surpass previous artists in international popularity though their reaction at home was mixed. Many listeners did not like their mellow, almost

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, ...

-styled bikutsi. Cameroonian audiences preferred more roots-based performers like Jimmy Mvondo Mvelé and Uta Bella, both from

1980s

By the 1980s, makossa had moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and a new pop-makossa fused elements of

Antillean The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

zouk. Prominent musicians from this period included

Moni Bilé Moni Bilé (born August 1957) is a Cameroonian makossa Makossa is a Cameroonian style of urban music. Like much other late 20th century music of Sub-Saharan Africa, it uses strong electric bass rhythms and prominent brass. In the 1980s mako ...

, Douleur, Bébé Manga, ,

Petit-Pays Petit-Pays (born Adolphe Claude Alexandre Moundi in Douala, Cameroon on 5 June 1967) is a Cameroonian musician. Petit-Pays has over 35 albums to his credit and is the Cameroonian musician with the highest number of songs ever. In 1996, he had ...

, and Esa. The 1980s also saw rapid development of Cameroon's media which saw a flourishing of both makossa and bikutsi. In 1980, L'Equipe Nationale de Makossa was formed, joining the biggest makossa stars of the period together, including, Grace Decca,

Ndedi Eyango Prince Eyango (born Ndedi Eyango; 27 April 1960 in Nkongsamba) is a Cameroonian singer, guitar player, songwriter, performer, and record producer. Popularly known as KING MOUAN NKUM, Le Roi Des Montages is the 3rd child of Eyango family. He made ...

, Ben Decca, Guy Lobe, and Dina Bell. Makossa in the 1980s saw a wave of mainstream success across Africa and, to a lesser degree, abroad as Latin influences,

Martinican Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in the ...

zouk, and pop music changed its form. While makossa enjoyed international renown, bikutsi was often denigrated as the music of savages, and it did not appeal across ethnic lines and into urban areas. Musicians continued to add innovations, however, and improved recording techniques; Nkondo Si Tony, for example, added keyboards and synthesizers while

Elanga Maurice Elanga is a name that may refer to the following notable people: ;Given name * Elanga Buala, (1964–2021), sprinter from Papua New Guinea *Elanga Wikramanayake, Sri Lankan lawyer ;Surname * Anthony Elanga (born 2002), Swedish football player * Jo ...

added

s. Les Veterans emerged as the most famous bikutsi group in the 1980s while other prominent performers included

Titans de Sangmelima In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the '' Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and ...

Seba Georges Seba or SEBA may refer to: Places *Seba, Indonesia, on the Savu Islands *Seven Brothers Islands, also known as the Seba Islands, part of the Republic of Djibouti Institutions *Secondary Education Board of Assam, India *Systematic and Evolutionary ...

, Ange Ebogo Emerent, Otheo and Mekongo President, who added complex harmonies and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

influences. In 1984, a new wave of bikutsi artists emerged, including Sala Bekono formerly of Los Camaroes, Atebass, a bassist, and

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

, a guitarist who would eventually help form Les Têtes Brulées with Jean-Marie Ahanda. 1985 saw the formation of CRTV, a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

network that did much to help popularize Cameroonian popular music across the country. Jean-Marie Ahanda became the most influential bikutsi performer of the late 1980s, and he revolutionized the genre in 1987 after forming Les Têtes Brulées, whose success changed the Cameroonian music industry. The band played an extremely popular form of bikutsi that allowed for greater depth and diversity. Guitarist Zanzibar added foam rubber to the bridge of his guitar, which made the instrument sound more like a balafon than before, and was more aggressive and innovative than previous musicians. Les Têtes Brulées emerged as a reaction against pop-makossa, which was seen as abandoning its roots in favor of mainstream success. The band's image was part of its success, and they became known for their shaved heads and multi-colored body painting, done to represent traditional Beti scarification, as well as torn T-shirts that implied a common folkness in contrast to the well-styled pop-makossa performers of the period. They also wore backpacks on stage, a reference to Beti women's traditional method of carrying babies while they danced bikutsi. It took only a few weeks for Les Têtes Brulées to knock makossa off the Cameroonian charts, and the band even toured

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. While in France, Les Têtes Brulées recorded their first LP, '' Hot Heads'', which was also the first bikutsi music recorded for the CD. ''Hot Heads'' expanded the lyrical format of the genre to include socio-political issues. Tours of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

followed, as well as

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

' film '' Man No Run'', which used footage from their European tour.

1990s

In the 1990s, both makossa and bikutsi declined in popularity as a new wave of genres entered mainstream audiences. These included Congolese-influenced new rumba and makossa-soukous, as well as more native forms like bantowbol, northern Cameroonian nganja (which had gained some popularity in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

in the mid-1980s), and an urban street music called

bend-skin Bend-skin (''bend skin'') is a kind of urban Cameroonian popular music. Kouchouam Mbada is the best known group associated with the genre. Several other artists have over the years contributed to the growth and popularity of bend skin. It is r ...

. Les Têtes Brulées remained the country's most well known musical export, especially after accompanying the Cameroonian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team to the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in 1990 in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and 1994 in the United States. A new wave of bikutsi artists arose in the early 1990s, including Les Martiens (formed by Les Têtes Brulées bassist Atebass) and the sexually themed roots-singer Katino Ateba ("Ascenseur: le secret de l'homme") and

singer Sissi Dipoko ("Bikut-si Hit") as well as a resurgence of old performers like Sala Bekono. Bikutsi's international renown continued to grow, and the song "Proof" from

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

's '' Rhythm of the Saints'', released to mainstream promotion and success in 1990, gained yet more renown from international audiences.

Vincent Nguini Vincent Nguini (July 1952 – December 8, 2017) was a Cameroonian musician and guitarist. Nguini was best known for his work with American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, with whom he recorded and toured for 30 years. Biography Nguini was born in ...

also contributed guitar arrangements and performance to Simon's ''Rhythm of the Saints'', which became an influential world music album, introducing many North American listeners to the wide range of instrumentation and genres. In 1993, the Pedalé movement was born as a reaction to the Cameroonian economic slump. Youthful artists like Gibraltar Drakuss, Zele le Bombardier, Eboue Chaleur, Pasto, Roger Bekono, Mbarga Soukous, and Saint-Desiré Atango was a return to the aggressive, earthy sound of bikutsi roots. Meanwhile, Henri Dikongué, whose music incorporated, amongst others, bikutsi and makossa, began to release albums which met international success. He went on to tour Europe and North America. The most recent form of Cameroonian popular music is a fusion of Congolese

soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar impro ...

and makossa, a scene which has produced Petit Pays, Marcel Bwanga, Kotto Bass, Papillon and

Jean Pierre Essome Jean Pierre Essome is a Cameroonian musician and actor. He is known for his makossa music. Essome is featured in the movie '' Before the Sunrise'', released in Cameroon and Nigeria. References External links * Year of birth missing ( ...

. Other popular genres include

Bend-skin Bend-skin (''bend skin'') is a kind of urban Cameroonian popular music. Kouchouam Mbada is the best known group associated with the genre. Several other artists have over the years contributed to the growth and popularity of bend skin. It is r ...

mangambeu Mangambeu is a popular musical style Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and telev ...

, and

makassi Makossa is a Cameroonian style of urban music. Like much other late 20th century music of Sub-Saharan Africa, it uses strong electric bass rhythms and prominent brass. In the 1980s makossa had a wave of mainstream success across Africa and to a ...

References

*Nkolo, Jean-Victor and Graeme Ewens. "Music of a Small Continent". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), ''World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East'', pp 440–447. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.

External links

*
Audio clips: Traditional music of Cameroon.

Musée d'ethnographie de Genève The ' ("Geneva Ethnography Museum") is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Switzerland. History The MEG, or Geneva Museum of Ethnography, was founded on 25 September 1901, on the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), ...

. Accessed November 25, 2010.
a history of bikutsi
* Audio clip (60 minutes)
Cameroon - The Baka Music House.
BBC Radio 3. Accessed November 25, 2010.
Audio clips - traditional music of Cameroon.
French National Library. Accessed November 25, 2010. {{Music of Africa Cameroonian music