"The modern youth is termed trendy by these two words. Pop and Culture"- Uno.
Pop (Adj) according to the
Advanced Learners Dictionary, means “New and general appeal (especially among youth)”. In short, if
you have heard wizkid’s new song or if you partook in the mannequin challenge
or if you just got a new pair of Timberland shoes’, you’re POP.
What we youth tend to place less emphasis on is the “Culture
& Tradition” part. Most of the things trending today and buzzing around us
youth are styles and practices engaged in by our forefathers. For example, some
of our successful musicians of today, D-Banj, Wizkid, Davido, Burna-boy amongst
others have firmly integrated their songs with lyrics and melodies from our
cultural and traditional artistes such as; Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Lagbaja,
Ebenezer Obey, and these young “trendy & pop” artistes owe much of their
successes to these artistes. To buttress my point, even great American musical
acts such as Jay-Z (Roc Boys), J-Cole
(Let Nas Down), Drake (I’m ready for you), have also dug deep
into their African roots and have found sounds from Fela and Nneka
respectively, appealing enough to integrate into their music. This further
highlights the necessity of tradition and culture into our trendy and pop
lifestyle.
The progression of computerized ways to create sounds in our
modern times also encourages a lackadaisical attitude amongst our youth. We
enter the studio, listen to a beat and “jump on it”, whereby, our tradition was
based on hours of rehearsal and painstaking exercises of trying to get the
sounds to gel and sound whole. King Sunny Ade, Kwam 1, Ebenezer Obey, to
mention a few would get their backup singers and instrumentalists and rehearse
in the studio for several hours before mastering and perfecting the song for a
synchronized sound whenever they are called to peform. Now, don’t s get me wrong, I’m all for modern practices
but all I’m saying is we need to get our foundations grounded. Our producers
should learn how to play an instrument or two, our artistes should work hard
till they find their sound instead of just “jumping on it” and we as artistes
should work on our art till it’s where we want it to be. Producers like Cobhams
Asuquo, Don Jazzy or TY-Mix can all play instruments and have studied their
craft extensively. We all jump into the studio with freestyles or half-ass
written songs and sometimes it comes out great but more often than not, the
song would be enjoyed for what it could have been.
As a conclusion, all my babbling sums up to the fact that I
support the school of thought that stipulates the Katapot theory; “we need to
take a few steps backward before we can go the farthest’. We just need to pick
a little from our past before we can advance into the future.
Twitter:
@theofficialuno_
Instagram:
@theofficialuno
Uno is an upcoming rapper who mixes indigenous genres of music into contemporary music to create a modern African sound that people from different roots and backgrounds can vibe to and enjoy. Follow him and fill that void of good music you’ve been lusting for. Bless.
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