History of Burger Highlife Music

Burger-Highlife evolved as a crossover music style from highlife, disco and funk music. To understand how it evolved and developed, to understand its roots and influences, it is important to look at the history of Burger Highlife, namely to look at the development of Highlife.

Ghanaian Highlife is one of the oldest popular dance-music styles of Africa. It emerged in the 1880s as a fusion of rhythms from the West African coast, Europe and black people from both South and North America. Its influence quickly spread to other African countries ...  more

During and after the Second World War British and American servicemen were based in Ghana and  loved swing and jazz. Together with Ghanaian  musicians they set up swing bands. Furthermore the years of independence affected the popular ghanian music...  more

From the mid 1960’s there were new influences on Ghanaian popular music from other parts of Africa and black America. The ‘Afro’ fashions and ‘black and proud’ messages of these music styles helped spark-off a period of intense experimentation...  more

Over the last 20 years, the three types of “traditional” highlife have waned due to influence from inside as well as from outside Ghana. Luckily however, new types of highlife have appeared, one of them being “burger highlife”...  more