Does Nigeria Music Lack Depth?

As many other Nigerians, I am a very big music fanatic and I like music that makes a lot of sense, sometimes it does not come across as your regular everyday sound. The fact that I can make meaning out of the song (not necessarily being able to relate with it) and put myself sometimes in the thought of the writer of the song, I ask myself, has music lost its depth in Nigeria?

Today I bought SIA's album off the play-store after listening to her single off the Album "1000 forms of fear" from the radio, I was really impressed because when you hear the lyrics of that song, you would know there is a lot of profundity in it. I was so curious to finding out more about that single and I went to YouTube to watch the video, that also blew my mind away (okay, just so you know I am not here to promote her. I want to drive a point home).

I got tired of listening to Foreign music and I decided to tune in to local radio and I heard a Nigerian Artiste which I would not want to mention, singing. I was really disgusted. I was disgusted not because of the voice or the beats, I was disgusted because these days people do not know why they go into music, most Nigerian artiste go into music not because they want to pass a message but because they feel that is a very informal shortcut of getting rich quick and also their ticket to fame and because of this, what drives them is not the passion to send a message across but the passion to elevate their current social status and to make their bank accounts blue.

In my humble opinion, making music is for critical thinkers, highly intelligent individuals and in the same vein people who want to pass a message across. Its sad to say, Nigerian artistes are not critical thinkers, they just dish out whatever trash they feel would "sell" except for a selected few who are doing their thing without fear of whether the masses appreciate them or not, people like Lindsey, Blackmagic, Age Beeka, Blaise, Styl-Plus and there is just something about these people "they are t a l e n t e d" in every sense of the word. There is also another sad similarity among-st them "they are broke" in comparison to their Nigeria counterpart. The question I often ask, is it that Nigeria and Nigerians dont appreciate good music or they don't relate with their music in the way they should? A few thoughts came to my head and the only plausible answer I could give myself is that Nigerians themselves are not deep-critical thinkers. The average person runs from everything that challenges their thought process in a way they cannot comprehend and this is the reason why mediocre prevails both in the music scene and other spheres of the country.

The biggest reason why I would forever give respect to FELA is because he went into music to pass a message, and pass that message in his own way. Now before Fela, his kind of sound was not mainstream. I doubt if any other person has attempted it, but that was totally unique to him and he got the accolade he deserved. Fast foward to these recent times. Wande Coal brought a new feel to Music which WizKid came and did better justice to and was better known for it. Wizkid started making so much money, it now dawned on the younger generation that they can be like Wizkid and make money too. Almost every Nigerian artiste now sings like Wizkid and in the desperation to just be out there, nobody wants to think of thought provoking lyrical details to their works. The only category of musicians that try in this aspect are the rappers and this is because the bar has being raised so high that you cannot but impress.

There has been a couple of similar write-ups as this, and I really do not intend that my post makes front-page but it was very uncanny to know that the first day I wrote this write-up, for reasons I do not know, I just archived it and two days later, a thread of this sort was on front-page. It goes to say that I am not the only person thinking this way. I CANT count a handful of Nigerian music that would be ever blue to me.

In other words, this is a plea to both our producers, musicians, artistes and the likes MAKE MUSIC OUR GENERATION WOULD TRIP INTO NOSTALGIA WHEN LISTENING TO IN 10-20 years.

redcliff:
Does Nigeria Music Lack Depth?

As many other Nigerians, I am a very big music fanatic and I like music that makes a lot of sense, sometimes it does not come across as your regular everyday sound. The fact that I can make meaning out of the song (not necessarily being able to relate with it) and put myself sometimes in the thought of the writer of the song, I ask myself, has music lost its depth in Nigeria?

Today I bought SIA's album off the play-store after listening to her single off the Album "1000 forms of fear" from the radio, I was really impressed because when you hear the lyrics of that song, you would know there is a lot of profundity in it. I was so curious to finding out more about that single and I went to YouTube to watch the video, that also blew my mind away (okay, just so you know I am not here to promote her. I want to drive a point home).

I got tired of listening to Foreign music and I decided to tune in to local radio and I heard a Nigerian Artiste which I would not want to mention, singing. I was really disgusted. I was disgusted not because of the voice or the beats, I was disgusted because these days people do not know why they go into music, most Nigerian artiste go into music not because they want to pass a message but because they feel that is a very informal shortcut of getting rich quick and also their ticket to fame and because of this, what drives them is not the passion to send a message across but the passion to elevate their current social status and to make their bank accounts blue.

In my humble opinion, making music is for critical thinkers, highly intelligent individuals and in the same vein people who want to pass a message across. Its sad to say, Nigerian artistes are not critical thinkers, they just dish out whatever trash they feel would "sell" except for a selected few who are doing their thing without fear of whether the masses appreciate them or not, people like Lindsey, Blackmagic, Age Beeka, Blaise, Styl-Plus and there is just something about these people "they are t a l e n t e d" in every sense of the word. There is also another sad similarity among-st them "they are broke" in comparison to their Nigeria counterpart. The question I often ask, is it that Nigeria and Nigerians dont appreciate good music or they don't relate with their music in the way they should? A few thoughts came to my head and the only plausible answer I could give myself is that Nigerians themselves are not deep-critical thinkers. The average person runs from everything that challenges their thought process in a way they cannot comprehend and this is the reason why mediocre prevails both in the music scene and other spheres of the country.

The biggest reason why I would forever give respect to FELA is because he went into music to pass a message, and pass that message in his own way. Now before Fela, his kind of sound was not mainstream. I doubt if any other person has attempted it, but that was totally unique to him and he got the accolade he deserved. Fast foward to these recent times. Wande Coal brought a new feel to Music which WizKid came and did better justice to and was better known for it. Wizkid started making so much money, it now dawned on the younger generation that they can be like Wizkid and make money too. Almost every Nigerian artiste now sings like Wizkid and in the desperation to just be out there, nobody wants to think of thought provoking lyrical details to their works. The only category of musicians that try in this aspect are the rappers and this is because the bar has being raised so high that you cannot but impress.

There has been a couple of similar write-ups as this, and I really do not intend that my post makes front-page but it was very uncanny to know that the first day I wrote this write-up, for reasons I do not know, I just archived it and two days later, a thread of this sort was on front-page. It goes to say that I am not the only person thinking this way. I CANT a handful of Nigerian music that would be ever blue to me.

In other words, this is a plea to both our producers, musicians, artistes and the likes MAKE MUSIC OUR GENERATION WOULD TRIP INTO NOSTALGIA WHEN LISTENING TO IN 10-20 years.

bro i think u shud listen to this too http://my.notjustok.com/track/3140/smashy-destiny#

@op are u just knowing?

Hmmm

Most Nigerian songs you mean. Asa's new album has tracks that are just d.o.p.e

olashas:
Most Nigerian songs you mean. Asa's new album has tracks that are just d.o.p.e

Yes like 95% of artists don't know the meaning of what they are saying and 90% of Nigerians join to sing the rubbish along with them

They keep telling you it is what's in vogue

May God help our generation

skyladon22:

Yes like 95% of artists don't know the meaning of what they are saying and[b][/b] 90% of Nigerians join to sing the rubbish along with them[b][/b]

They keep telling you it is what's in vogue

May God help our generation

True

Sad though