Music, Politics, Entertainment, Life & Style critic, Etcetera has
come out with another of his criticizing publication on Nigerian
Music.
Read:
“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?
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment