Mr. Nanex 6/23/2016 2:21:15 AM

WHY SOUND NOT LYRICS IN THE NIGERIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY?

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I witness a scene somewhere around Nyanya axis, an outskirts in Abuja, where a vehicle almost knocked down a little boy who was walking along the neighbourhood with his both ears covered with a big headset. I felt really annoyed that i had to warned the boy never to walk on the street with both ears covered with an headset. The boy promised never to and politely said “bros this gbedu sound wey i dey listen to, dey burst my brain na im make i know hear wen the car dey horn”.I smiled and curiously asked him “young man, so you prefer music with good sound than the lyrics (content)”, he laughed and said to me. “Bros i no get time to listen to the content as far as the sound fit make me dance ” At this point you will be wondering where all this story is balling down to? Yes your guess is not far from right. The question is “Why the sound and not the lyrics”? Well, after taking a very good look at the music industry here in Nigeria, i discovered that for an artiste to remain relevant in the music industry you must really do justice to your sound. A very good example is Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk fondly called “Kukere master” who we all use to know with the R&B (a genre he was recognized for) thing is now seen as a blessing to the afro-pop genre of music. After four years of sojourn in the music wilderness he bounced back with a big hit “Kukere” courtesy the “beat” In his debut album few years back (My story) which featured singles like “Love truly” and “No time”, you listen to how passionately Mr. sexy sings these ballads. Iyanya probably examined his genre and figured that to remain relevant in the scheme of things, he had to switch from R&B to a more upbeat tempo because “Nigerians want music they can really dance to” and indeed, they are dancing as he smiles to the bank. It would also be recalled that, Iyanya received a N3 million cheque from Mtech Communications for breaking the record of the highest caller tunes download in Africa for his breakthrough song, Kukere. “WOW” you will say, that's exactly what it means by having a nice beat. The problem is, these kinds of Singers are the ones excelling in Nigeria. They are the ones smiling to the banks; they are the ones getting all the product endorsements! Davido just signed a two-year endorsement deal with Pepsi. How many shows has Timi Dakolo gotten after making so much sense? How many #endorsement deals has #Dare Art Alade been given? The endorsement deals fly into the arms of the artistes singing songs that do nothing but corrupt even a prostitute. Now my point. The Nigerian musicians are real businessmen! They are doing what every businessman would do -supply and demand! The Nigerian market loves the contents, it is going crazy with these meaningless dance tracks. It is only a madman who would see an opportunity to legitimately make millions and refuse to jump into it. The Nigerian music consumers are to blame for the low content quality the artists churn out on a daily basis. We are hypocritical in this part of the world, we say something else and do the exact opposite. If the artiste find out that no one is buying their junks, they will take time to create quality contents. They will never do that if we continue to give their shows sold out status and make them most downloaded artists of the month. Vote them as the winners of the album and artist of the year awards. If we continue this way then we might as well tell good music to rest in peace! The only assurance the likes of 2face Idibia , Timi Dakolo, Dare Art Alade have is the longevity power their works have. The songs will out live them for sure. The likes of Olamide and Davido can’t leave a valuable catalogue for their descendants as inheritance because nobody would be buying any poo from them in 50 years. In simplest terms, music is the combination of lyrics and beats. Where any one of these major ingredients is missing,the music may be deemed tasteless or even described as bad music. Nigerian musicians of today have been criticised severally for producing more of the beat while their music is lacking in lyrical content. One observer captured today’s music as ‘a lot of lyrical nonsense and danceable beats’. A school of thought believes Nigeria has seen the best of music, good lyrical content spruced with ecstatic beat, in the past and thus condemned today’s music as nothing but mere sound to dance to. It claims today’s music lacks message, meaning and substance of evergreen quality. As good as this opinion sounds, it doesn’t appear to have nailed the issue right on the head. For one, many have questioned why today’s musicians are apparently more affluent than those of old. One could still remember the labour it entailed to make it as a musician in the days of old while just one track could catapult today’s musician into the millionaires club. Furthermore, today’s music has more claims to success because our music has become more internationalised than ever, just as it has been accepted almost 100% by the local population.

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