I have come to the rather saddening but not so shocking realisation that we don't have music in this country.
Okay..hold up..let me explain. I acknowledge that this is a rather general statement, and as to all generalisations, I'm sure there exists some exceptions lurking about here and there. However. I am dealing with the rather annoying generality of what we call music in Nigeria, and I am viciously hitting that P button!
It all began one morning, as I was on the bus on my way to work. Apparently there is now 'transit t.v', and it has constituted a nuisance to my peaceful mornings. So on this stunning new invention *i roll my eyes*, all they show is music. Nigerian music. So its either they chose songs to punish us at the crack of dawn, or the options are just very limited. Imagine listening to some ridiculous sex-laden song, devoid of common sense so early in the day! I was irritated beyond measure. So now I plug my ears with my own music most of the time.
This new transit t.v infringing on my freedom of silence opened my eyes to see what exactly we call music in this nation. Now do not get me wrong, I'm not coming from the angle of 'if its not gospel music, its bad music', (even though I'm sure the world would be a much better place if all songs glorified the King of kings). I'm saying that the songs we have these days are totally devoid of talent. There are few, very few exceptions, like the T.y Bellos and the Jodies of this world. But mostly, what we have are a bunch of people recycling the same old junk..its soo predictable. If he's not talking about sex, or money, or booze, she's talking about some old lover boy, or being heartbroken. Seriously people, surely this is not all we think about. It can't be! Because if it is, our generation is in trouble for sure. I know a number of young people, so I'm sure there are individuals who actually reflect on meaningful stuff.
Apart from the content of the songs, there's the type or is it the genre of music. All we have these days sounds like party music. Dance hall. Many many beats, lots of whining and grinding. Why in the world will I want to listen to such noise at 6.30 in the morning? I don't want to! And I doubt a lot of sane people want to. Its like the target of our musicians is to have their songs rocking on the dance floor, or in some hotel room. What happened to nice soothing music that does not involve any booty shaking?
I don't have that much exposure to secular music, but I'm far from ignorant. So a few examples come to mind. John Mayer. Micheal Bubble. Jill Scott. Bruno Mars. These guys could be singing about a love interest, or about something really silly. But they make it so beautiful. They are CREATIVE about it. Theirs is the kind of music that I could listen to on 'by-force t.v'. Because I would not cringe at its lewdity. We need to realise that you don't have to put naked girls on your video to make it pop. 'Nakedity' is all over the place, it don't pop no more. Its old and boring. I'm sure there are some members of the men-folk which may still enjoy it, but hopefully, we also have some intellectual, brilliantly sensible and non-myopic men. Hopefully.
The bottom line of this rant. If transit t.v, and the social media in general, will make it almost unavoidable that I listen to secular music, then by all means, we can have sensible, non-offensive music, at the very least. Let's engage the creative sides of our brain. Let's do something that will leave a mark. Let's try not to get good citizens (like yours truely) pissed off so early in the morning!!! Leave the Dance Hall music where it belongs...in the dance halls.
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