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| A Sad Musician. source: plutonicgrioup.com |
It
is important that a music artist understands what gives music an enviable
standard. When this fails to happen the musician becomes a slave to the
situation and begins to fumble around for something else when, actually, he
should be trying to give his music the right publicity.
Here
in Nigeria we have a culture that naturally demands appreciation. If your
earlier album got the right support and you find yourself becoming a star,
people begin to expect you to show appreciation. It may not necessarily be in
cash, but, rather, in your words when you speak or your demeanor when the
people who helped you are around you.
In
the context of Nigeria, as in other settings, you have national stars that are
known across the country and local stars that are known within the confines of
their states. These later group is made up of those that refused to go to
Lagos. For them it is easy for the radio network to protest when it is
perceived that they are ungrateful. Information travels faster within a smaller
geographical area after all. If, however, your music travels across the country
from Lagos, people across the country are not personally known to you and wouldn’t
expect you to come showing any appreciation. So, this is one benefit of going
to Lagos.
But
if you don’t know that it is a paucity of airplay that stifled the spread of
your music you will begin to guess other factors that are, in fact, innocent.
You begin to suspect that may be you did not reflect a Nigerian air in your
music. At that point you’ll begin to wear the huge agbada and collaborating
with tribal artists, thinking that doing that would help the spread of your
music. You, sadly, failed to recall that the first album made it without you
wearing agbada and collaborating with artists who sing in the diverse tongues
around you. At this point you are sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of
your confusion. It is the beginning of the end.
The
solution is in being sure of what you are playing, that your album met the
standard, that some albums that aren’t as good have found consistent airplay
and that the only albatross is in the absence of your music in the airwaves.
If
your songs are well-written, and have spectacular melodies, and exude pure
originality and have the flashes then stay calm and try to find out why the
songs cannot be found in the airwaves. That is where you need to concentrate
your effort. Stay in control of your music
