Afrobeats vs Afropop: What's the Difference?
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People use Afrobeats and Afropop interchangeably. They're not the same thing. Here's the difference — and why it matters for understanding African popular culture.
What is Afrobeats?
Afrobeats (with an 's') is a contemporary music genre that emerged from Nigeria and Ghana in the 2000s and 2010s. It blends traditional West African rhythms with hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, and electronic music. The key artists are Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Tems.
Afrobeats is characterised by its infectious rhythms, its blend of English and African languages (Yoruba, Twi, Pidgin), and its celebration of African identity and pride. It's the sound of the African diaspora in the 21st century.
What is Afropop?
Afropop (without an 's') is a broader term for African popular music generally — it covers a wider range of genres from across the continent. It was coined by the radio programme Afropop Worldwide in the 1980s to describe the diverse popular music coming out of Africa.
Afropop includes Afrobeats, but also highlife from Ghana, jùjú from Nigeria, mbalax from Senegal, kwaito from South Africa, and many other genres. It's the umbrella term for the entire spectrum of African popular music.
Why the Confusion?
The confusion comes from the fact that Afrobeats artists often describe their music as "Afropop" — and many fans use both terms interchangeably. In practice, when people say "Afropop" today, they usually mean the contemporary Afrobeats sound.
Afropop Socks was named to celebrate the entire spectrum of African popular culture — not just the music, but the fashion, the art, the heritage, and the identity that the music carries. The name captures both the music and the cultural movement.
The Cultural Heritage Behind Both
Both Afrobeats and Afropop are rooted in the same cultural heritage — the traditions of West and Central Africa that survived the Middle Passage, colonialism, and diaspora. Kente cloth. Adinkra symbols. Maasai warrior culture. Pan-African pride. These are the foundations that both musical traditions celebrate.
Afropop Socks celebrates that same heritage through bold wearable design. Every pair comes with a cultural story card.
Wear your Afropop heritage every day.
Shop Afropop Socks — From £8 →
Stocked at Smithsonian NMAAHC · Tate Modern · V&A Museum · MoMA
About the Author
Isaac Prempeh is the founder of Afropop Socks and a British-Ghanaian entrepreneur based in London. He grew up in a Ghanaian family surrounded by Kente cloth and Adinkra symbols and founded Afropop Socks in 2019 to bring African cultural heritage into everyday fashion. Afropop Socks is now stocked at the Smithsonian NMAAHC, Tate Modern, V&A Museum, Natural History Museum, Barbican Centre, Selfridges, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and MoMA New York.
Isaac writes from personal experience of Ghanaian and British-African heritage. All cultural information in this article has been verified against academic sources.