Bye-bye Old school
I wrote this article last year but somehow, it was pushed to the background like many of my journaled posts. Well, well, just pretend like it's last year and enjoy reading.
For some weeks now, I've been close pals with my FM radio which has given me the chance to listen to Nigerian music that I guiltily don't go all out to listen to. Music is a stress reliever and that is true and totally fine. For me however, aside the beat—that truly could relieve stress. Listened to instrumentals?—I'm one for content. Whenever I listen to music, I unconsciously keep my ears up to hear every word possible in that song, in order to assess if it's something I'd like to listen to on a regs—probably why I tilt towards ballads. Sadly, quite a number of Nigerian artistes have little or no real content in the music they churn out. Ironically, quite a number of Nigerian songs talk about the same thing; lust as love, the physique opposite sex (majorly female) and the likes or just plain beautiful nonsense (that's me being nice). My mom and me talk about this almost all the time.
When I listen to the songs of old—the '90s down—I realize that a vast majority of those songs made sense and can still be related with today without us feeling like the message is “outdated”. Coming to nowadays, I'm not entirely convinced that up to 35% of songs enjoying airplay—now and previously—would make much meaning in say, TEN YEAR'S time. This gets me thinking; “So, we won't have 'old school' is some years time from this era?” It would probably be the old school hits that we hear already that would be on then with a just a couple of songs from this era.
I'd have given examples of songs that get me wondering what the message is essentially and what was going through the artiste's/songwriter's head but that would likely turn this post to something else entirely. But, I know if you are sincere, you can think up a handful of tracks as proof. For the records, I'm no music critic but just someone keen on good music. These are my honest musings this time around.
What do you think about Nigerian music? Do you agree with my thoughts? I'd love to hear your thoughts, hit me up in the comments.
So long,
'Mina.
For some weeks now, I've been close pals with my FM radio which has given me the chance to listen to Nigerian music that I guiltily don't go all out to listen to. Music is a stress reliever and that is true and totally fine. For me however, aside the beat—that truly could relieve stress. Listened to instrumentals?—I'm one for content. Whenever I listen to music, I unconsciously keep my ears up to hear every word possible in that song, in order to assess if it's something I'd like to listen to on a regs—probably why I tilt towards ballads. Sadly, quite a number of Nigerian artistes have little or no real content in the music they churn out. Ironically, quite a number of Nigerian songs talk about the same thing; lust as love, the physique opposite sex (majorly female) and the likes or just plain beautiful nonsense (that's me being nice). My mom and me talk about this almost all the time.
When I listen to the songs of old—the '90s down—I realize that a vast majority of those songs made sense and can still be related with today without us feeling like the message is “outdated”. Coming to nowadays, I'm not entirely convinced that up to 35% of songs enjoying airplay—now and previously—would make much meaning in say, TEN YEAR'S time. This gets me thinking; “So, we won't have 'old school' is some years time from this era?” It would probably be the old school hits that we hear already that would be on then with a just a couple of songs from this era.
I'd have given examples of songs that get me wondering what the message is essentially and what was going through the artiste's/songwriter's head but that would likely turn this post to something else entirely. But, I know if you are sincere, you can think up a handful of tracks as proof. For the records, I'm no music critic but just someone keen on good music. These are my honest musings this time around.
What do you think about Nigerian music? Do you agree with my thoughts? I'd love to hear your thoughts, hit me up in the comments.
So long,
'Mina.
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