The Nigerian Music Industry Series by Safiano (Music Vs Entertainment) Part 1.




I was watching television the other day, specifically music videos and i suddenly realized music is now widely been recognized in Nigeria as entertainment. O yes! You heard me say entertainment, which by the way is an art of keeping people hyped up, amused, excited, and fun-filled through performances. While i agree that music is an aspect of entertainment just like dance, comedy, movies, game shows and others, i also realize that music in all its beauty, artistic form and creativity is not limited to just entertainment. In fact if you check the history and origin of music from the ancient ages you will see that entertainment was not the primary function of music from the beginning of human existence. However i must quickly state that this article is not a ploy to play down the role of entertainment in our society, cos guess what? I love entertainment! I get entertained a lot listening to music, watching football & movies. But i also understand that certain genres of music like classical & soul music has effects on people on areas such as spirituality, inspiration, love, healing, cultural appreciation and so on. So where do we strike the balance? How do we educate people via the media, marketers & stake holders that there are thousands of genres of music aside dance/club music? How do we increase the market share of other genres of music to capture various audiences both local & international? How do we begin to create middle class musicians, songwriters, record producers, talent managers, labels and quality distribution outlets at the grass-root levels?
I was watching the afrima awards recently and realized that Nigerian artistes were not nominated for band related categories. We also didn’t make the nomination for best Rock music & were beaten in categories such best Pop, Hip-hop & R&B awards category for the year under review. I think the solution to this problem starts with giving genres of music like alternative music, high life, juju fusion, Afro-soul, r&b, jazz & instrumental music, and other genres more significant opportunities in terms of air plays, publicity, long-term marketing & distribution structures so the narrative that only dance/beat driven music sells in Nigeria will gradually change. Another solution would be to strengthen our copyright laws and content protection institutions so we can now focus on discovering the next Tu face idibia, Darey art alade, Asa, Femi kuti, cobhams asuquo, omawunmi, and many others.
This article is written by Safiano sani, head of Adlibz media. For more information on our services and subsequent articles, like & follow our various social media platforms below; www.adlibzglobal.blospot.com, www.facebook.com/adlibzvocalacademy, www.facebook.com/adlibzmusicproductions-AMP

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