POPULAR EMOTIONS IN POPULAR MUSIC: THE HIGHLIFE EXPERIENCE

While the intimate connection between music and emotion has been variously studied, the focus has predominantly been on Western classical music. Different musical features have often been linked to particular emotions (e.g. Major mode = happy, Minor mode = sad). Comparably fewer studies have investigated the link between Popular Musical forms and the expression of emotion focusing on distinctive features. In this paper, we examine the nature of expressiveness in highlife music in relation to how listeners consciously use it for emotional reasons. We look at the place of lyrics as against other distinctive musical features in the identification of the two commonest basic emotions (happiness and sadness). Analysis of the data reveals that whereas specific musical features in highlife may play a role in the communication of happy and sad emotions, the greater emphasis lies in the lyrics.