How do you change a people or generation from “bad” to “good” make them educated and civilized without coercion but through a feeling of fulfillment that poetic, numinous and noetic; Simple- through music.
Music is liquefied knowledge, it is the sum of experiences of the musician, his life, coping mechanism, and philosophy that he breathes as life through his songs so that listeners can be helped and by listening make good choices, understand their world, person and society better. So wouldn’t be deem germane if we filtered and acquiesced the people in our society to the right things, important lessons, teaching and philosophies through the purposeful exposure of them to good and intentional music
Music is the King of profession, because it amass a follower-ship accrued only to kings and prophets, can affect the thinking of the intended and give fulfillment to the maker of the art. an end in itself. I am a witness and product of the transcendence that music gives. I used to be a haggard erratic and listener, a typical cannon fodder of the Nigeria airplay drivel until my university days when I met my friend Afeez, who introduced me to Lana Del Rey, Katie Melua and Coldplay as the songs that assisted him in painting and drawing, that and his lending to me (I stole it) the Second edition of Chicken Soup For the Soul and I underwent a total transformation
Now I am even a preacher of the power of good music knowing what good music can do to a person, a group of people and even an entire generation
You might wonder why People who listen to Reggae are generally more chilled and relaxed towards life Because you can’t listen to Bob Marley’s Rat race and still feel the unexplained urgency to do according to the slave driver You cannot listen to Nap Eyes and not want your own life to be and also set you free amongst many others musicians whose music have been the literal upward steps on my path to transcendence.
I posit as an example that one of the major reason for the hyperbolic discounting among our old folks today. those who bloomed in the 70 and 80’s who were more attuned to Highlife and Synco System music of that age was gotten around that time, Which I feel in turn led to the lack of planning among men of them in most Nigerian family and even the entire country as a whole today.
A popular one still echoed by those once enthralled is the song “Alowo majaye iwo lo mo, Awon to to ti ku won ti lo o” ( Those who have money and do not spend are on their own, those who have died are all dead and gone)
This is why most of them negated planning for their off springs, thinking Nigeria was going to be “good” for a long time, now remember that I just opine, the problem of Nigeria is still multifaceted as it is almost kaleidoscopic
But it doesn’t buttress or negate in totality the point that music plays an important role in the life of an individual. Almost as if you can tell about a person by the song the person listens to, it show what is being played constantly in his mind, which most like drives and direct his thought and eventual action.
So in a way, we can blame music for the sex craze of the 2015-2020s and I Know that sex have been a part of who we are from the go, but never have there been a time when sex is being totemized and glorified as this time, toted as the all in all, from the advert on television, the dressing, the music, music videos it is choke full with the nuances of sex
Creating a system of pornographic reification, an ouroboros of music, sex, heartbreak that leads to more music about “sex” confusing in a sense the physicality of sex as love creating an illusory foggy atmosphere of “sex”(as love and heartbreak)” fueled by the same music in a stupefying gyre. Making most Nigerian youth feel that they have something to sing about, you ask for a demo and it is either about sex, sexual urge or heartbreak which they envelop under the word “Love”
Songs from Naira Marley in Nigeria among others have infested the mind of our today youth and made them quite besides themselves to say that they are quite illicit is to be hyperbolic modest. and I’m not about to fault the mechanism of an artist as I think Naira Marley is a very talented musician (Dude have got Flows), But I am grateful for and able to hear other things which cannot said of other young Nigerians growing up and soaking heavily on a new stupid genre called “shaku-shaku” which is just filth in a catchy beat and hook and in an age of youth heavily dependent on music, obviated by the youth with their sound system and Bluetooth speaker a consequence of a neglected upbringing that we have, which they use as succor for the failure of government, parents and society, it will cost nothing for what they hear to be inspiring , uplifting and educating rather than creating a herd of fornicators and exhibitionist
If only they listen to half the songs on this blog I’m sure of changes at least in the way they think.
For the musicians who pay the radio heavily for constant playtime, using the re-occurrence of his music on the radio to get his music subconsciously accepted by the people in society so as to feel they are the happening music in town, they must know that they wield an enormous power and have the power to change a person, people or an entire generation depending on what they release as music
Music remains a powerful tool not to be toyed with and know that with it you can change an entire people with no coercion and half the time and effort imprinting psychedelic nature in them, making them educated, civilized, calm and better through something as simple as sound waves.
-Victor Samuel
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