By Iwelunmor Patrick
Music is a medium of communication the world over and a vehicle for cultural expression. There have been generous exemplifications of this reality by history. Many popular cultures of the world have been brought to the fore through the instrumentality of music and this has boosted in immense degrees the level of cultural interaction among many nations of the wide world. In Nigeria, music used to be a veritable tool for cultural orientation in the 50s up to the 60s when it was fashionable to boast of one’s culture in its unadulterated state.
The highlife music with strong tentacles in the west and eastern regions saw the emergence of a culturally committed breed of Nigerian musicians who, other than for the love of money and cheap popularity sought to promote lofty ideals of nationalism, humanity and self actualization.
In the then northern region, we had the likes of the then Jos-based Bongos Ikwue, the Kaduna based Bala Miller who also made concerted musical efforts to promote their indigenous cultures. As a matter of content, their music had all the elements of good stuff compared to the lyrical mishmash that have taken over the airwaves in recent times. The fact that most of those musicians of yesteryears did songs in their native dialects did not undermine the intellectual dimensions those songs expanded. Highlife music in those days aroused a sense of cultural intellectualism which gave birth to a plethora of indigenous bands that preached the concept of Africanism, which in itself was a rallying point for subsequent musical and ideological research.
Ideologically speaking, several other music genres of those days whether foreign or indigenous dissipated in their totality deep ethos of intellectual engagement and influenced the psyche of their publics in an uncompromisingly positive manner. For instance, Fela Kuti and the Koola Lobitos inspired the redefinition of afrocentrism and supposed white superiority. The same can be said of Ebenezer Obey and his International Brothers who churned out evergreen songs that promoted the Yoruba culture. It is today a matter of fact that many foreign institutions of learning have since established departments of African studies, where white scholars try to deconstruct the art and bravura hidden in the African culture. The whites have now realized that their idea of the “mythical beast” was more of colonial myopia. African music draws inspiration from myths, legends and social milieus and such can also be said of African literature. Hence it can be argued that both are two sides of the same coin. Other Nigerian musicians who have today become case studies abroad include the following: King Sunny Ade, Sir Victor Uwaifo, Dan Maraya Jos, Majek Fahek, Asa, etc.
In the early 80s up to the early 90s, when apartheid consciousness was still rife all over the world, a crop of African musicians, especially from Nigeria rose up with an almost irrepressibly united voice that shook the occidentals to submission. Alpha Blondy, the Ivorian maverick, The Mandators, Majek Fashek, Ras Kimono, Peterside Otong, Oritz Wiliki and Isaac Black are names that reverberate nostalgic reminiscence. Apart from their intellectual militancy through music, some of these musicians stunned the international music scene with their innovations. Prominent among them was Majek Fashek who perfectly blended the talking drum into reggae, thereby attracting the attention of some American rock musicians, particularly Tracy Chapman, who even wanted his drummer, Kofo the Wonderman to do stuffs for her. So rich was the heritage that generation of musicians propagated! In terms of content and style, it was difficult to fault the direction of those musicians, even though critics agreed they could have done better. But that is the beauty of the arts. Criticism is not necessarily condemnation of a work, but rather its appreciation in the most objective ways, celebrating its strong points and identifying the weak ones for subsequent improvement.
Contemporary Nigerian musicians with the exception of Asa and a few have defied all known categorizations in terms of style. Strange tunes have taken over our airwaves. Lyrical epilepsy, thematic inanity and instrumental cacophony are the order of the day. These are signifiers to a society “turning and turning in the widening gyre”, a society where the falcon can no longer hear the falconer, a society where things have fallen apart and the center cannot hold, a society where musical anarchy is unleashed upon the land. The most painful and saddest reality about the state of contemporary Nigerian music is that the youths are really enjoying the whole thing. Artistes who cannot even differentiate between notes and keys come up with all sorts of crime-inducing songs and they become stars. We celebrate them and give them awards for propagating vanity. An artiste once sang “Maga Don Pay, Shout Halleluiah” and nothing happened. I expected the EFCC to do the needful then. It is amazing to note that even some of the elderly – the agbayas – have joined in the encouragement of such wayward songs. Anarchy is the name of the game today as you hear many funny and irritating slangs being shamelessly chanted around by a generation of Nigerian artistes whose love for vanity is incurably terrible. We have been fed with aberrations such as 4kasibe, Oti Nya Nya, Wa Gba Kondo, Je ka kolabo, Yori Yori, Ginger the Swagger and a legion of many other obscenities that have become case studies in immorality. One wonders why these artistes often propagate quick fixes and sexual scatology as overriding sensibilities. The implication of this is that the Nigerian society is being reduced to a dancehall for intellectually empty youths who have completely lost grips with reality.
Alarming failures in JAMB, WAEC and NECO exams are enough proof. The musical videos are laughable with no concept and artistic direction. Almost all our so called hip hop artistes have the same plot structure. It is always a set of half naked girls wriggling around stupefied boys sitting on sofas and facing a table parading a variety of alcoholic drinks.
It is also saddening to note that the Censors Board is almost helpless in the fight against the quality of music being circulated in the country at present. This is not an outright indictment of the board rather it is a sympathetic association with its challenges. The Censors Board alone may not be able to achieve great success in this war against bad music without the cooperation of all media houses most of which accept to air such music without due consultation with the board. Some DJs and presenters, out of the desire to make extra money, go all the way to air the music of desperate artistes without even paying painstaking attention to content. The National Assembly should make stringent laws to this regard and empower the relevant agencies to implement them to the letter. Let us for once encourage the production of music with substance that will worth the term “intellectual property”.
The bastardisation of creativity in the computer age has been a burning issue for some time now, however, it is not totally given that the computer is to blame. One of the core functions of the computer is to fasten the pace of production. The computer was never conceived to substitute thinking or creativity. We think with our heads not with the computer. The computer can only be a good accessory when transmuting thought to finished product, hence, it is an invaluable asset to the thinker or creative mind which seeks to fasten the pace of production. This argument is precipitated by the unfair conclusions in many circles that digital music recording smacks of the lowest level of creativity. That digital music recording depends on computers with prefixed beats and a variety of enhancing softwares does not mean the artistes should be inept of great ideas. Dexterity in the handling of musical instruments, even though it is lacking in the present crop of Nigerian musicians, could be translated to innovative heights using the computer. Blaming the computer entirely for the waning of musical creativity does not hold much weight. Let the contemporary Nigerian artiste pay more attention to content rather than just sound. Let us encourage the production of music with useful message for the society just as Asa is doing right now. She’s young but ahead of her generation in terms of depth and creativity. Let organizers of musical reality shows encourage more creativity by allowing contestants to compose their own songs rather than just sing what other musicians have done. Let record labels redefine their standards clearly to promote positive vibes and not noise pollution. Let music marketers go for the good stuff and soft pedal on the idea of making quick money. The Alaba boys should disembark from their destructive ventures that support the proliferation of musical garbage. Let parents monitor the music their children listen to and let government go hard on all those who conspire to bleed our once intellectually vibrant musical heritage to death.