Happy people, hope you all are having a great weekend. So I
just found this piece online and it’s incredible to know that I am not the only
one who thinks Nigerian music is BS. I miss the days when music was more than
catchy hooks, meaningless lyrics and “feel good” beats. Well, I think of most Nigerian
“musicians” more as entertainers than artists. Etcetera says if you listen to Nigerian
music you need to ask yourself why and I totally agree with him. Anyway, read
the rest of what he says below….
“Shoki hey hey
Shoki!” cries a voice from the radio to the beat of a nerve-wracking
pandemonium that seems designed to drive you insane.
A quick flick
of the dial and “Shakiti bobo” is playing. The worse thing is that the raucous
noise emitted by the artiste is no match for the loud, odious din coming from
the beat. The lyrics are completely lost – which may not be regrettable to some
– but the whole tumult sounds more like bad static than music.
I tuned the dial again. This time it was
Olamide screaming “VANESSA VANESSA.”
As the last
strains of the song died away, the OAP cheerfully and enthusiastically breaks
in, “Yes, that’s for all you listeners out there. That’s the way we do it right
here at your cool station. We personalise our playlist to make you feel cool.”
Cool kor, cooler ni…. I felt like telling
the OAP that his choice of songs made me feel SICK.
This is simply
today’s Nigerian music! Something is terribly WRONG with it! Yet millions
around the country – especially the young people – listen to it by the hour.
WHY?
What is there
about this music that is so gripping? How can something so meaningless hold
millions under its spell? Why does it serve as a common denominator – as “the
tie that binds” – for so many youths?
Judging from
how and what they’re saying and singing, it is easy to conclude that some of
these artistes should be taken for mental evaluation! Music mirrors our
emotions; it reflects our thoughts; it echoes our activities – it shows us the
way we really ARE.
Most Nigerian
artistes are confused and bewildered – or they wouldn’t sing songs about not
being able to tell right from wrong, or songs which purposely don’t say or mean
anything, or which try only to “embody an emotional state that points
indirectly to marijuana and crazy sex positions.”
Music – just
like other forms of art – is like a social barometer. A strong and healthy
society produces dynamic and stimulating music; a diseased and decaying society
produces sick and decadent music.
It’s a simple matter of cause and effect!
This is now a
SICK SOCIETY and, therefore, it produces SICK MUSIC. It’s just that simple!
Both parents and the young people are to blame. My point is, we all don’t have
to be a part of this sick society – or its sick music.
Even talking
about today’s gospel songs, many are lacking in purpose and quality. The gospel
singers are forgetting that God believes in QUALITY. Look at the universe He
created! He also believes in human improvement and GROWTH. “Become ye therefore
perfect” (Matt. 5:48) and “Grow in grace and knowledge” (II Pet. 3:18), He
commands.
God wants His
people to grow in the right kind of culture – the right kind of appreciation
for the finer things in life. He says that mature Christians are “those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to DISCERN both good and evil” (Heb.
5:14).
God wants us
to EXERCISE our five physical senses. He wants us to learn what the true values
for the enjoyment of the senses are. One of these senses is hearing. And one of
the ways we need to exercise our hearing sense is in the appreciation of
quality music. Quality in music involves, first of all, the way it is composed
or arranged. Secondly, it involves how the music is performed. And thirdly, the
setting (the place and occasion) in which the music is heard.
You attend a
concert only to see artistes with a hodgepodge of idiotic noise played from a
CD and the audience seated at round tables like they are in a canteen,
screaming with mouthful of small chops and ‘samosas’ as every new song is
introduced by the performer. What utter nonsense! What is WRONG with us? How
did we completely lose our sense of value regarding music? Do we even know the
purpose of music?
A mother justifies her daughter who’s
listening to an obscene song by saying,
“If you listen
to the words of that one, it’s pretty rough. But it has a real good beat. My
daughter says she doesn’t pay any attention to the words anyway.” Are we really
that naïve?
What erroneous
reasoning! Go along with the crowd – even if the crowd is on the way to
suffering, misery, pain, extinction? Do we think that these songs have no part
in the tidal wave of promiscuity, venereal disease, illegitimate babies that
are all over the country today? If you are one of those who like today’s Naija
music, you ought to honestly and truthfully ask yourself WHY.
Anyway, stay happy and spread happiness around. Xoxo
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