Know It When Your Music Is Fabulous

A Sad Musician. source: plutonicgrioup.com

Your music must be fabulous to find acceptance. Sadly, though, music can be extraordinary and still be unable to find acceptance. One common reason why this often happens is when the music never got the required dose of airplay.
 

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