Steemit Engagement Challenge S3-W2|All About My Local Music : Cameroon, the the land of Good Music 🎵

As for Makossa, it is one of the genres which are well known all around the world. It is characterized by the strong electric bass guitar and the brass together with saxophones when necessary. This music when listened to it you just want to dance for no reason. The point man of Makossa in Cameroon is known as Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum who brought this music to the spotlight in the year 1972. But one man who was found to originate from the Duala clan and Yabassi came forth with a revolution of this music with his Saxophone 🎷 and it became soul Makossa that man is none other than legendary Emmanuel N'djoke Dibango also known as Manu Dibango. There are several artists who have marked their names in the Makossa book of records, in thee likes of Ben Decca, Manulo, Kotto Basse, Dina Bell and many others

The video link below is a video showing the french industry endorsing one of his great pieces during one of his concerts in France. Watch by yourself and enjoy the genius.

The Makossa music can be blended into several other music types to make a unique kind of Makossa music. This has been done by several musicians on the Cameroon territory as i earlier mentioned. Those of the West region use Bend Skin to blend into Makossa meanwhile those of the Northwest use Njang and Bottle dance to make the Makossa a lil more funky. The musician John Minang and Prince AFO Akom are those who use this genre much often.

Other music genres have blended both bikutsi and Makossa to form a special music type such as Mboko, Assiko, Afro Pop, Afro Trap etc. But we should note that all these music types are sprung forth from the Makossa beat types.

Beauty of Cameroon music all lies in it's diversity! Cameroon music is an art wanted and admired by everyone around the world. The mixture of all these amazing instruments to give a particular sound is just amazing. Infact Cameroon music from all the regions of the country is enough to feed the foreigner for a lifetime.

Cameroon has more than 200 ethnic groups and that means it has over 200 different kinds of music and from all these groups we can not lack what will be pleasing to our ears. The likes of many artists from these different ethnic groups with their different genres of music make it an amazing center of attraction to visitors and tourists. Some examples are Kotto Bass, Belka Tobis, Manulo, Manu Dibango, Ko-C, Jovi, Dina Bell, Bébé Manga, Tom Yoms and many others

Oh yes of course there are great similarities between our local music and those of Nigeria, Congo, France and many other countries. Makossa as i earlier mentioned is one of those music genres which has affected the whole of Africa and also some France rappers. Among these are singers like **P-Square, Awilo Longomba, Soukous Makoul ** and many other artists who have adopted the popular Makossa to their various musics.

The similarities also is greatly influenced by the instruments we all use to make music. Remember i said earlier that Cameroon is Africa in miniature so we encompass all other genres of music into one. So we find it easy to recognize the pattern of our music almost all around the world.

I originate from the Northwest part of the country and specifically from the Mean division where it is the Njang and Bottle Dance whoch dominate. The music which influenced my growth are these musics because during every ceremony be it child dedication, marriage, ordinations and death celebrations, we always celebrate with this music. And among musicians of this genre, we have a most popular one called John Minang he was a man who wasn't from our tribe but we danced to his songs for it was the same culture and dance.

^{John Minang in Traditional regalia}

This bottle dance is an instructive song. A music where the singer gives instructions and the dancers (often paired into two, a male and a female) simply follow them and it makes it look so beautiful. In between the instructions there are interludes and hooks where the dancers chronologically follow the instructions already given as he sings the hook. Below is a sample of the most popular bottle dance in my country called Fine Fine Woman. You can click and enjoy the rhythm.