Before influence by European countries, both Filipino and African music centered on percussion instruments such as gongs and drums, and both have string instruments resembling lutes; Sub-Saharan Africa has kora, the Philippines has kutyapi.
However, modern Filipino and African songs have almost no similarities between each other though, because OPM tried to sound as Western as possible during its transition to the modern day Pinoy pop or P-Pop. This is the why trap and K-Pop-style electro dominates the country’s upbeat pop music scene. The Hispanic fusion identity of Filipino music disappeared on the airwaves since Asin stopped making music in the early 80s. Meanwhile, African countries still try to combine their tribal sound with modern EDM and hip-hop, which gave birth to unique genres like Kwaito of South Africa.
