. Pains and gains of the changing tunes of Nigerian
music
By Onochie Anibeze, Laju Arenyeka, Juliet Ebirim,
Adeyeri Aderonke
At the mention of the name, Fela Kuti, one might
conjure up images of a half-naked man, ‘strutting
his stuff’ on stage, accompanied by over a dozen
half naked women following his lead. But the actual
impression of many Nigerians and people all over
the world is much more than that; Fela embodied a
struggle for a truly democratic, free Nigerian
state.
Whether it was his 1975’s Monkey Banana which
warned the poor not to be hoodwinked into a life of
servitude by the propaganda of the rich, or his
1978’s Suffering And Smiling which spoke without
fear against religious hypocrisy of people in
government; or his 1981’s Coffin For Head Of
State which called out the Nigerian government on
the Kalakuta raid that led to the rape of his wives
and death of his mother, Fela’s message was one of
change – very much like music of his time. Although peculiarly different from Fela’s
Afrobeat, Osita Osadebe’s much-loved Highlife
music was also very much about the message. His
hit song, Osondi Owendi, can be translated to mean
‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison,’
portraying the ironic nature of the world.
Onyeka Onwenu’s One love was and still instrumental
to building national unity. What about Christy
Essien Igbokwe’s Seun Rere, a timeless piece that
remains ever fresh despite its lack of naked girls
shaking their booties? Who would have thought that
a song admonishing a child to behave well so that
things would be well with him would remain a hit
for generations to come? Yet value-glorifying
songs like that, and Hear your mama by Mike Okri
still remain unforgotten.
Perhaps not the best club song, Edna Okoli’s Happy
Birthday will be a tune of celebration for all
seasons. And even now, Felix Liberty’s Ifeoma still
gets people dancing and miming to their loved ones
at parties. Yet it wasn’t all politics and values for
the old timers; Victor Olaiya’s Baby Jowo was, and
still is a love song that will never wane. Ask Tuface
Idibia, who recently did a remix with Olaiya decades
after the original release of the song. And when
compared to today’s crude ‘shake your bum bum
lines,’ the duo of Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu
gave a purer rendition of love in the song Wait for
me.
In today’s music industry, the tune is different
and so are the lyrics. Danceable beats, catchy
phrases, signature dances, hi-tech editing, and a
whole lot of sex and money appeal define music
today. The audience doesn’t mind singing ‘Take
banana till you go yo’ 60 times in one song; it
seems, that music is now defined only by how it
sounds, and not what it means.
Dearth of good lyrics: What does the future hold?
Lyrics are simply words that make up a song, often
consisting of choruses and verses.
Sadly, these days, Nigerian musicians do not give
much attention to the lyrical contents of their
songs and most people do not listen to the lyrics of
songs either. They only dance along to the beats.
Now, the song is good if the beat is catchy and
rhythmic. Musical lyrics nowadays have
deteriorated to the extent that good and
meaningful lyrics are hard to come by.
A common trend in contemporary songs is the
flaunting of wealth, sex, drugs and alcohol.
Music lyrics have a way of sinking deep into our
minds and impacting on ou r thoughts. Each
song carries a message that the singer is trying to
pass on. Are you feeling sad or depressed? Slot in
a “feel good” dance hall song into your CD player
and notice how your mood changes.
Most music artistes of today have fallen short in
terms of quality lyrics. A good song should come
with quality lyrics. For instance, one song that has
enjoyed massive airplay in recent times is Iyanya’s
All I want is your waist.’
For the first one minute of the song, all you hear
is, ‘your waist, your waist, all I want is your
waist…’ and a few mumbled words which he chants
intermittently. ‘All I want is your waist’, a request
to which the girl responds in the affirmative as she
sings in an erotic tone “all you want is my waist,
my waist, you want my figure 8”.
At some point, the singer gets really excited and
begins to call out names of popular female
celebrities demanding for nothing else but their
waists and he sings more of ‘your waist’ and then
the song fades. A song of about four minutes,
enjoying massive airplay around the world, whose
central theme is the woman’s mid region, scores
low in terms of lyrics although you may give the
rhythm a pass mark.
Over the years, music has been a universal
language which cuts across ages, time and space. It
is represented in patterned rhythm, lyrics and
systematic repetitions with a mission to
communicate mood, time and ideology to an
amorphous audience. It is found in every known
culture varying widely between time and space.
Music has been a powerful tool for societal change.
The same way cultures and values can be preserved
by good music, so can certain aspects of cultures
be wiped out of existence by influx of bad music.
One of the major functional and strategic appeals
to the mind is music. By it, a worried soul can be
enlivened; a wrinkled face can wear a smile and
beam in the euphoria of joy again. By it,
imagination can rule the mind. Lyrics can set the
mind imagining of the future or reflecting on the
past. Likewise, an unpalatable situation can be
painted with sounds of hope. Music can both be
emotional and functional depending on the feeling
the originator is trying to elicit. Many songs have
been built on the basis of helping to promote an
idea, especially in the corporate world, where
advertisers employ the power of music in promoting
products and services for greater patronage.
With good background sense, the early musicians in
the world concentrated more on the content of
music than on the instrument accompanying it .
Although both variables – lyrics and instrument
work together, one should have a greater
percentage of priority than the other. Sadly
though, the priority has shifted from lyrics to
instrumentation especially on our shores.
Nigeria’s contribution to the development of West
African Highlife and Palm-wine music, which fuse
native rhythms with the techniques imported from
the Congo gave birth to several popular styles like
Apala, Fuji, Juju, Highlife, and Yo-pop, unique to
the country. However, the dish of undiluted music,
which was coming from Nigerian musicians of old,
got contaminated with time.
Music can be used to curb corruption, promote love
and peaceful coexistence and it can also be used to
teach morals in our society.
Consider for instance, the lyrics of Onyeka
Onwenu’s One Love: …One love keep us together
Somebody tell me; Oh why do we fight it
One love can set us free; if we just let it be
Take heart in a brand new day
Cause love is all we need; To chase the past away
You never need worry; If you just let it be …….
This song preaches the need to show love even when
it hurts most, regardless of tribe and religion or
race, lack of which is the genesis of the insurgency
in the country for some time now. This was an
article of faith and hope for a brighter future and
our commitment to realizing and creating a united
Nigeria that our children would be proud of.
Our appreciation of the musicians who truly
created songs to praise and preserve our culture to
the envy of the Western world has diminished
drastically, occasioning dominance by foreign music
which lacks the essential things that make us
Nigerians. “Ace” was a musical fusion between Juju
and Afro beat; a rhythmic collaboration which
pierced ethnic, cultural and language barriers in
Nigeria by Sir Shina Peters (SSP). Shina Peters
also released Shinamania (Afro-Juju Series 2) that
changed and revolutionized the Juju Music scene in
Africa. Sir Shina Peters is still regarded as the
creator of a well-respected music genre (Afro
Juju) that exists in its own class till this day.
No doubt, our pop music is fast losing face, values
and morals, and the younger generations are not
making any effort to change that. Rather, they
celebrate and inculcate some kind of corrupt
western style of music to the detriment of ours.
2Face, in his Kolomental sings:
“Make you craze dey go; That’s nonsense; Make you
no make sense ...”
Gone are the days when good music was
characterized by words filled with values and
morals; songs that were highly philosophical.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/now-sex-sense/#sthash.iUiVd3vr.dpuf

sadly i dont like fela's song.
But y is this writer victimizin iyanya, as if he is the only artist that sings meaningless songs.
The audience should get most of the blame cos what he produces is a mirror image of what ppl want

stop talkin shii.. and enjoy the music, times av changed, and so hav values, even abroad, u ll get the same thing(prolly worse), but i won't blame u anyway its only natural in man to glorify the past, condemn the present and hope for a better future(Machiavelli), these are just young ppl trying to use the trends in the society to make money in a hard economy.

I think one thing this article is forgeting is that“ variety is the spice of life“ and“ the only thing constant in life is change,“......the OP is just exagerrating,there are good musics too,even the so called west he is accussing also chunk out good music,colbie dolhart,Nico and Vinz. Also in Nigeria we also have good artist like brymo,jesse jagz,2face,M.I (his latest album is tha bomb,with tracks like human beign and brother).....by the way OP na faze sing kolomental no be tuface and I know like iyanya but take am easy with him na.