The other day I attended a party and I was
alarmed by the content some of the songs played had. Imagine a song with these
words 'wa fe ku lale yi' meaning 'you must surely die tonight'. Its a Nigerian
song by the way, in the Yoruba dialect.
Contemporary Nigerian songs are beginning
to scare the shit out of me (excuse my language but that's how freaked out I
get when I hear some of 'em') This is because a good number of them lack content
or decent words.
If they are not singing about sex, drug abuse, making money illegally over legally and everything in-between, it won't lack the use of vulgar language, violence, and what not. Its surprising yet that the most shallow songs win the highest accolades and awards as the case where. Not encouraging at all.
If they are not singing about sex, drug abuse, making money illegally over legally and everything in-between, it won't lack the use of vulgar language, violence, and what not. Its surprising yet that the most shallow songs win the highest accolades and awards as the case where. Not encouraging at all.
This then might probably be the reason why we
never get enough of them. Towards the end of last year, a 16year old cousin of
mine who's into music, asked me to listen to his song and Boy! was I taken
aback. The lyrics goes thus
'Baby do you know that, this your
body eh, make we just soji eh. Baby do you know that...'and try to picture the look on my face.
Yep!!! Exactly. I was like 'WHAT!!!' you are just 16. Can't you sing about God,
about inspiring your friends, hoping for a better future, a letter to your
mother, a song for Nigeria. I mean, the options are endless. What do you know
about a woman's body, are you suggesting sex, do you know about teenage
pregnancy? ...LOL. My cousin left me instantly. I was asking too many questions
right?
Sorry I sound a bit old fashioned but I
refuse to believe the society is that degraded.
Another aspect I find pretty annoying is when
I see little girls twist and wine and twerk...TWERK!!!. Is it safe to say this
is the reason we have an alarming rate of child molestation and increase
in paedophiles? I'm not saying these men shouldn't be castrated for such crimes
but I feel if children especially the females are not exposed to the kind of songs
meant for adults and as a result pick up dance steps that are meant for adults,
it wouldn't be this bad.
If you are an 80s generation and by that I
mean from 1981 to 1989, you will remember we were welcomed home from school
with a rainbow coloured screen on the infamous NTA etc. We watched cartoons
like Dodo the King from Outer Space, Super Ted, Tender Bears, Danger Mouse, Jumbo,
Tom and Jerry etc. Much later we had Voltron, Power Rangers, Biker Mice, Silver
hawks etc I'm sure you also remember waking up very early on Saturday to watch
Cadbury Breakfast Show.... What happened? And who says we didn't have series?
Remember Dr Who, Allo Allo, Spencer, Rent-a-Ghost. Television had a lot to
offer a child intellectually back then.
What we have now I can't place my hands on.
I pray you, do tell me what happened, what changed? And the songs we had back then, my goodness!!! I just had this conversation with my colleague at work and we began to reminisce on songs from back in the day.
We were literally dancing as we sang some of these songs. we went crazy like GURL,That was a hit!!!. I mean, these were songs that had connotative meanings but they were not all up in your face. Sexual healing by Marvin Gaye, Workerman by Patra (butterfly dance), Diana King's Shy Guy, Inner Circle's Sweat and the list goes on and on. They were suggesting sex but they were so palatable to listen to. Do I say all the songs that 'made sense' ended in 1999, and what we have now is diluted crap?
Back then, radio was so fun to listen to because the deejay had a way of playing songs that match your mood and it would instantly help you relax or set the mood for whatever is on your mind but now, I can only shake my head.
Have I written too much already???
Hehehehehe. But for now, that's all. Try downloading this song below, it should help you relate to how I feel.
PS: your comment is like CocaCola to me, it
boosts me up. Keep them coming.
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