The poorer populations of 1914 Cape Coast Africa would often gather outside the upper class large music clubs, listening to the ballroom and ragtime orchestras inside. They eventually termed the music "High Life" because of the posh, high-class revelers inside. By the 1920s, both kinds of tempos inside the affluent festivities influenced local musicians with a new version of the High Life.
The first form of the High Life music appeared in the 1880s with the local brass bands of the Fanti coast (located in the south of modern Ghana) playing "Adaha." This form adapted the metal instruments from the British West Indian regimental musicians stationed at the British Cape Coast colonial administration. Poorer villages developed a version called Konkoma using drums and voices.
Kru seamen of the Liberian coast contributed an African-form of cross-fingering guitar music to local percussion music forming the "Osibisaaba" style of High Life music during the 1920s. Spreading to western Nigeria, High Life then combined Juju (an African form of rock and roll) with Central Africa's "dry" guitar--African guitar playing in this case, using a single-note style based on using a plectrum rather than the thumb and index finger.
Palm wine music in its pure form emphasizes acoustic guitar. Associated with palm tree wine, brewed by the humble residents of rural villages of Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, Africa, this is the "gathering around a shade tree" form of High Life music. Considered the most gentle form of African guitar music (noted for intertwining guitar chords), Palm wine music edges on relaxing while at the same time pulling the listener to the dance floor
The modern trend in Ghanese High Life music comes from the young. The influence of American and British Rap music as well as High Life bands on young Ghanaians evolved into popular jazz-like dance music some call Hip-Life.