highlife
nounEtymology From high + life.
1
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas.
- 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.2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 326:
2
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A work or performance in this style.
- Then he left the stage and listened to us playing highlifes.1985, John Collins, African Pop Roots: The Inside Rhythms of Africa, →ISBN, page 76:
- 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.2012, Nate Plageman, Highlife Saturday Night: Popular Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana, →ISBN, page 142:
- Derived terms
- burger highlife, hiplife