highlife

See also: high life and Highlife

English

Etymology

high +‎ life

Noun

highlife (countable and uncountable, plural highlifes)

1. (music, uncountable) A genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas.
   • 2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 326:

     Anwar took the broom away from the Congolese cleaner – whose name I did not know, whose name no one ever thought to ask – and made her dance with him, to some highlife he had going on the transistor radio he carried everywhere.

2. (music, countable) A work or performance in this style.
   • 1985, John Collins, African Pop Roots: The Inside Rhythms of Africa, →ISBN, page 76:

     Then he left the stage and listened to us playing highlifes.

   • 2012, Nate Plageman, Highlife Saturday Night: Popular Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana, →ISBN, page 142:

     Several of the city's most prominent ensembles started to incorporate foreign rock 'n' roll numbers into their existing repertories of ballroom, calypsos, and highlifes.

See also

• Highlife on Wikipedia.Wikipedia