In Ghana, as in other African countries, tradition lies at the root of artistic creation. Before a musical performance, African musicians acknowledge the importance of tradition by pouring libations to ask the blessings of their ancestors; they also evoke tradition in performing the music of their ancestors. For example, the ritual music played for ancestral spirits is performed without creative embellishment; it is intended to recreate the sort of old music that the ancestors enjoy—and thus to encourage these spirits to help human beings with earthly problems. However, tradition—whether in Africa or elsewhere—does not refer solely to a careful and conservative reproduction of past cultural forms: it also suggests the dynamic process of adaptation, reinterpretation, and transformation that keeps such forms lively and relevant. Neither are old customs simply abandoned in the face of the new; instead, functional traditions (such as ritual music) are maintained, while older material is also reworked into new interpretations. This attitude toward the past is represented by the Sankofa, a mystical bird figure that looks backward as it flies forward. The Sankofa symbol in Ghanaian cloth means "Reach back and take it"; in other words, look to the past for what is useful and incorporate it into your present.

The spirit of Sankofa may be seen in the development of highlife music, one of the most popular styles of West African social dance music. Although a 20th-century phenomenon, highlife has roots in the late 19th century and fuses diverse musical elements, including Western harmony, British military band music, and American jazz. Christian missionaries brought Western-style hymns and harmony to Ghana in the late 19th century, and highlife harmony blends African and European practices. During the same era, British colonials introduced military bands to the country. Ghanaians learned to play brass instruments, some of which resembled African instruments (e.g.; trumpets made from ivory or animal horns) but had a greater range. Brass is now an essential ingredient in highlife music; moreover, highlife’s 4/4 meter resembles the square meter used in military marching music.

In the 1920s, Ghanaians began hearing jazz records, and they incorporated jazz songs and improvisation into small highlife dance bands as early as the 1940s. American GI's in Ghana during World War II brought more jazz. And after the war, jazz, calypso, soul and rock all became widely available on records and through the radio. In 1956, Louis Armstrong visited Ghana, playing a free concert to a crowd of 100,000. Highlife absorbed all these influences, blending them with solid African polyrhythms played on bells, rattles, and drums.

The influence of highlife music has spread from Ghana and Nigeria throughout the entire African continent. At one time, highlife was considered to be the music of the African elite—or of those who aspired to join it and thus to live the high life. From this connection, the musical genre received its name.