Hi World. This is going to be a long text. Don't be discouraged please.
I’m convinced that Nairaland is more than a Nigerian forum. It's International, in one way or the other. So I’m writing this hoping that a larger range of audience gets to see it, read it and contribute to it.

I’m from Nigeria. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of the world, especially cultural differences of the world. And one thing I realized is that cultural values and exhibitions have a kind of spiritual impact on people… not only those who practise them. For my fellow atheists who don’t like reading of words like “spiritual”, “mystical”, “supernatural”, etc, lemme use a more appeasing word… So I was saying that cultural values have a certain manipulative power on the human mind. You’ll need to be at a certain level of cultural Nihilsm to not be manipulated by cultures. Check this out.
Can you seat comfortably (in a bus or Train or Flight) beside some homosexuals who are romancing without being psychologically troubled. Will you be at peace with your mind the same way you’ll be at peace with your mind if it was some couple singing a song you know? I think People tend to be at peace with actions that conform more to their culture than they’ll be with actions that are alien to their culture. And they tend to label actions that contradict their cultures as immoral or evil. I’ve realized that most cultural values have been unable to unite humanity. Nobody wants to accept the other's values as the best.
But there’s this certain cultural exhibition I’ve seen in every culture on earth. It’s so common among cultures that it makes me wonder if we should classify it as a cultural exhibition or a natural exhibition among people. For me, it is as natural as laughing, sleeping, crying,… The only problem is that it is learnt. They call it MUSIC. But you know the funny thing? There exist national and international institutions that have been charged with evaluating musical works and to tell the public which musical piece is the BEST… They give awards to the best musical piece of work annually.

I wonder if you know Where I’m heading to with this. See, music is art. Art is fundamentally spiritual. It germinates first inside your mind before being exteriorized. And whoever that consumes it doesn’t consume a material product like biscuits that can be measured. The consumption of arts is spiritual, just like its germination. Now, the question is: “how do Award-giving Musical academies measure the musical validness of a music?”
Read that question on the last line of the precedent paragraph again. You might rush to reply “the lyrics determine the musical validness of a piece of music”. But that’ll be a wrong answer, except if you didn’t agree with me that Music is art and is spiritual.
See? Mathematics, Logics, Lyrical correctness (of a musical work) have nothing to do with the spiritual life. These things are activities of the brain. A universal correct answer can be established in things that are related to the brain (1 + 1 = 2 everywhere) but not things related to the soul… unfortunately arts is majorly related to the soul. So I asked you again : “how do Award-giving Musical academies measure the musical validness of a music?”
I believe music is art and that Art is fundamentally spiritual. If you believe the same, you’ll have to agree with the rest of my writeup. If you don’t believe so, I’ll be willing to know what you think or believe about that nature of music.
Lemme start by asking you to open a new Tab on your device and make a Google Image search on “Michelangelo artworks”. When you’re done enjoying his Paintings, make another Google search on “Leonardo da Vinci artwork”. When you’re done, search up “Ben Onwowu artwork”. Finally, search up “Pablo Picasso artwork”.
I don’t want to ask you who among the four artist is the best. I want to ask you : who do you think is the worst? Your guess is probably my guess. E go shock you now. Go back on your new Tab and search “best painters of all time”. I bet the person you called the worst painter here will be on top 3 on your Google search. There are good artists you know that you’ll never see on any list you find on the Internet. With what criteria do people evaluate Artworks? Lemme spit this out sef…
Believe me when I tell you that if you enter a Paint Store in Malaga, Spain and shout “Michelangelo is better than Picasso!”, the consequences of your declaration might be comparable to someone who enters a Mosque in Saudi Arabia and shots “Jesus is Lord!”. If you don’t gerrit, forgerabourit.

My take is that national Evaluation of artistic works is a waste of time. Arts speaks to us differently because we feel things differently. Let’s embrace this difference by respecting each other’s taste of Art. And Award-giving Artistic institutions should stop making a fool of the human soul. They should stop presenting a certain musical work as “BEST”. Bro that’s musical colonization.
If we really agreed that Colonialism is a no respecter of Cultural differences, we should be bold enough to murder the little colonial masters in us that vote our taste of culture (Music) over other people’s taste.

Haven said this, I’m doing a personal research on Cultural Music all around the world. I want to know about many cultures because I feel that the true identity of a people can be perceived through their cultural Music. And I feel it is possible to be touched emotionally by the music of a foreign culture. I got seduced to do this after reading a lot of comments from people from all over the world who gushed out their admiration for my culture. It feels emotional to read a text from someone who doesn’t even understand your language say the melody of your music touches their soul.
So please, tell me a Music (Especially if it’s a Music video on YouTube) that presents a lot about your culture. Let the song be on your native language and let the attire and dance be dominantly native.
I start by telling you I’m Igbo. My favorite Igbo musician is Flavour. He exposes a lot of the Igbo culture is his songs. I recommend these ones for you: “Mmege Mmege”., “Egwu ndi Oma” and “Umu Igbo” if you want to feel the Igbo Culture. And Read especially the YouTube comments on the videos. It’s impressive how many foreigners connect to these songs.

Worthy of mention are certain Videos I found during my cultural promenade on YouTube. These aren’t Music from Igbo people but I bet any lover of culture would be mesmerized by their melody. First is Fally Ipupa's “Eloko Oyo”. I think I’ve heard the instrumental of the song in a Nollywood movie and I believed it was one of those Igbo background instrumentals in Nollywood movies. Second is Olamide's “Abule Sowo”. The person that introduced my to this song is not even a Nigerian and with this song, she won a soft spot in my heart ever since. The last song is Alexandro Querevalù's “The Last of the Mohicans”. I don’t even know how to describe this piece of Art. Simply Heart-touching.
Please drop the name of a Music video that presents your culture to the World. I'll be excited to check it out.

You'll find a lot of comments like these ones on Music Videos where Flavour flows Igbotically.

watch and come back to confess


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRbRLvn6H_U

obiekunie01:
watch and come back to confess

Fire!
Flavour always delivers on cultural musics. Ijele ndi Igbo 1.

Lemme post links to some of the songs I mentioned in my post...

1. Flavour-- Mmege

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzBINk1ZlA

2. Flavour -- Egwu ndi Oma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnMZUWZt-U

3. Flavour--Umu Igbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24_SzUMQzw

4. Fally Ipupa's Eloko Oyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4KNVT2w0mU

5. Olamide's Abule Sowo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FIGjTF7yKw


6. Alexandro Querevalù's The Last of the Mohicans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93wGaGFUnTs