Music is said to be food for the soul, but it appears this is not so anymore. The question is, why do many Nigerians prefer today’s whack music to the soulful, meaningful music of yester years? PATIENCE IVIE IHEJIRIKA and ADERIBIGBE TOLULOPE, write
Gone are the days in Nigeria when values were embedded in music. Today, musical tunes and lyrics have changed from what they used to be as today’s music, more or less, is defined by sound and drum beat rather than meaning.
Why do the majority of the youth in Nigeria prefer the noisy commercial songs to the mature and meaningful songs with messages of love, unity and tolerance among the people? Musicians in the latter category are a few and are not as commercially successful as their hip hop colleagues.
They are hardly recognised and honoured, or even invited to perform regularly at big shows and events. In this category are legends and pioneers of their genre of music. They are unlike Davido, Iyanya, Olamide, Yemi Alade, Patoranking and several others who give their fans who are mainly the younger generation the kind of trending commercial music they crave for.
In the western world, contemporary pop, R&B and soul singers are given equal fame and recognition like the hip-hop, dancehall, rock and techno musicians. Most of the hits created and released by 90 percent of the artistes in the country talk about the opposite sex.
The music industry appears not to place emphasise on lyrics as was the case in the past and many people too unfortunately do not bother about the lyrics of songs or so it seems, they just dance to the beat.
Contemporary music is characterized by money, wine, sex, women and the flaunting of their natural endowments. There is practically nothing for the teenager to learn from most of the songs that make the wave today. Yet the artistes are highly celebrated and honoured with several awards even when their songs are anything but honourable.
However, there are still a few musicians in the contemporary world who still make a lot of sense, like Brymo, Asa and Timi Dakolo among others. But how many of them are as celebrated and rewarded as their colleagues discussed earlier? Is a sign that meaningful songs no longer matter and appeal to the present generation?
Take for instance, a musician like late Fela Anikulapo Kuti who was tagged a prophet by many people because most of his songs were like prophecies which ame to pass and still have relevance today. Other musicians like Osadebe, Onyeka Onwenu, Evi Edna-Ogholi and others are still much remembered today due to the impact of their songs on the people and society.
According to Kelvin Alohan, an online content manager, music in the country is all about market strategies. He recognises two types of musicians in the world- those that do music because they love it and those that take music as an occupation.
“The music lovers do music because of their love for music, so they tend to always pass across deep intensified messages with their lyrics and express their opinions through their songs, while those that do it as an occupation considers the appetite of the public and release songs preferred by their target audience at that point in time. Which is what I meant by market strategies,” he said.
The content has been the major worry of pundits as many classify is as a generational thing. In clubs, pubs, gardens, malls, lounges, the boom of sound is what makes many wonder. As many old men and women dance to the beat, the youth also join in the fray. When you see an elderly man dancing to ‘Oya shake body’, what more do you expect from a younger person?
Some older musicians write songs today that are not even worth listening to and they also feature these young artistes that sing the “any how” songs.
There is a man of about 50-years old who said he had passion for music right from his mother’s womb and felt he could do better than the present generation. But listening to his lyrics and beat, it’s just whack. He calls himself Junior Wizkid.
Many respectable musicians whose songs are well appreciated are relegated to the background today because their back-up videos are not what many Nigerian youth want to see. Most concerts you attend today is organised by the elderly ones who are supposed to scrutinize the kind of artistes they invite. Gone are the days of Benson and Hedges concerts where musicians who perform on the stage were only those that send out good messages. Today, if you have not sung about dogonyaro, monkey tail, claro, money, sex style, sexy mama, skelewu and others you are not known.
Let’s look at a couple of Nigerian artistes whose songs are not just cool but command the respect of many, even beyond our shores.
Nneka: A German-Nigerian hip hop/soul singer, songwriter and actress. She sings in both Igbo and English and was born December 24, 1980. She kicked off her singing career in 2004 as the opening act for Sean Paul at Hamburg Stadtpark.
Her songs stress the issues of capitalism, poverty and war and are often loaded with moral and biblical messages and references.
In 2005, she recorded her first album, Victim of Truth and it was released in Germany, England, France, Netherlands, Nigeria and Japan. It is compared to Lauryn Hill’s album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill that was released in 1997, then toured around European cities like Paris, Amsterdam and London.
In February 2008, she released her second album, No Longer at Ease. The lead single from it, “Heartbeat”, became her first song to break into the German Top 50 as No 31, in France as #34. In September 2009, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number twenty. Nneka was nominated in three categories for the 2009 Channel O Music Video Awards and won an award for Best African Act at the 2009 MOBO Awards.
The soul artiste collaborated with Nas, Damian Marley and Ziggy Marley to promote their albums. Nneka also won the award for best indigenous artist in Nigeria at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards (NEA) 2010, which was held in New York, USA. Since then she has won the NEA award for best international artist several times.
In 2010, she released another album, Concrete Jungle and Soul Is Heavy in 2012. She’s not known by many in Nigeria but this musician has toured the world more than any artiste in Nigeria.
Asa: A singer-songwriter, and recording artist born in Paris, France to her Nigerian parents. Her genre varies from jazz, indie pop and pop.
In 2004, she started working with Cobhams Emmanuel Asuquo as her producer and musical partner. After her first singles, Eyé Adaba and Jailer were beginning to get airtime, she went back to Paris. Then Asa was signed to Naïve Records.
The release of first album, Asa won the prestigious French Constantin Award in 2008 and she was voted best fresh talent of 10 singers or groups by a jury of 19 music-industry specialists in Paris.
Her second album, Beautiful Imperfection, was released on October 25, 2010. The lead single, Be My Man was released in late September and the video was released in mid-October. She also performed with Féfé at the Sydney Festival in 2011. French Music Awards, Victoires de la Musique nomination for ‘Female Artist of the Year’ in 2011.
In 2014, before the release of her Bed of Stone, the album sold over 400,000 albums worldwide.
She is recognised as an iconic figure in Paris, Germany, London and other European countries. Her name always rings bell because there is no way people can’t identify with her songs because they are evergreen even though she’s not as recognised like the other local artistes.
Timi Dakolo was the winner of the first season of Idols West Africa in 2007, beating the runner-up, Omawumi Megbele with 63 percent of the votes. With his victory, he took home many prizes including a recording contract with Sony BMG.
His genre is soul music. In 2006, Dakolo auditioned for reality show Idols West Africa in Calabar. His songs of choice were Commissioned’s More Than I and Lemar’s Time to Grow. His vocals impressed the judges and he was seen as a contender for the prize. A week before the viewing of the Top 24 performances, Dakolo received the news that his grandmother had died.
While in the competition, Timi’s grandmother died, a week before the viewing of the Top 24 performances. This was a big emotional blow to him. At that time, he turned to his Christian faith for strength to pull through in the competition. Before going to Idols West Africa, Timi was a student of Communication Studies in the University of Port Harcourt.
He released his first single comprising three songs in October 2009. In 2011, he released the song “There’s a Cry”. The music video was filmed in Nigeria. He is currently signed with Lone Records/Now Muzik. But the kind of fame Omawumi gets is a far cry from Dakolos’ because his songs are powerful and powerful songs in Nigeria come up mostly during elections.
Singer Lola Rae who is a British-Ghanaian-Nigerian in an interview recently commented on what makes most Nigerian artistes more prominent than others.
She said nudity which is being displayed in our music videos has taken over the entertainment industry because everybody wants to sell his/her song, tghey go for it.
Lola said, “It seems to be working because the fans love it. I’m not saying one should get naked but you just have to give your fans the best. For instance, the way I dress when going onstage is quite different from the way I dress on a normal day. I always like to look sexy while performing and it’s a way of giving my fans the best”.
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