The Fundamental Characteeristics of Ethiopian Pop Music
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Date
2020-09
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Addis Abeba Unveristy
Abstract
Ethiopian music has a rich and diverse musical tradition with thousands of years of experience
in both religious as well as non-religious practices. Ethiopian „modern pop music‟ experience is
a recent phenomenonThis study has the central aim of proving and exploring the existence of “golden time” and the
reason why the name “golden time” was given to a certain period music production in Ethiopian
popular music production history. The beginning and the ending time (years) of the so-called
“golden time” is some how controversial that, it needs special attention to be determined. The
formation of the orchestra (bands) and the role of instruments are the main elements to classify
the period as golden or notThe research is basically based on investigating musical elements found in the recordings.The
melodies, baselines, chords, melodic phrases (verse and chorus), the usages of music instruments
for solo playing and improvisation, rhythmic structures, scales and the instrument that used
dominantly are identified. Data obtained from interviews and focused group discussions with key
informants from music background are used as main reference. Documents and archives in the
title of Ethiopian music, are also used. Both qualitative and quantitative methods in the
descriptive approach are important to be imployed to conduct this research. Generally, this
study focused on investigating the elements of music productions done within the time frame of
the period so-called “golden time” to determine as golden or not
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Keywords
Ethiopian modern pop music, fundamental musical characteristics, golden time