Over the past few decades Nigerian contemporary music has ” blown ” beyond the coast of Nigeria territory to the rest of African countries and also the world at large. Recent success of Nigerian pop singer Wizkid‘s features on Drake‘s ” One Dance ” which top chart the ” Billboard Hot 100 ” amplified this post of clarification of pop music and afrobeats.
Yes no mistakes, Wizkid, Davido and D’banj who has recorded huge success in the global market as a pop star, Not Afro-beats. Simply because such genre of music did not exits, though there is afro-beats which popularised by late Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Tony Allen which at its heart is a combination of traditional Nigerian jazz, highlife, funk and chanted call and response vocals fused with percussion. But there is no afro-beats.
On the other hands, pop music does not exist. Though the pop music has been leading music genre all over world for decades now. In Nigeria it is no exception.
The ubiquity of the wrongful classification was recently brought closer to home when founder/CEO of BHM Group and a media entrepreneur Ayeni Adekunle, started on a twitter rant about it.
Dear Oyinbo media. WIZKID, Davido, Dbanj, and co are not Afrobeats artistes. They are pop artistes. Stop the misnomer.
— Ayeni Adékúnlé S. (@ayenithegreat) May 12, 2016
Has the tweet goes live, its ginger others Nigerian on the clarification of pop music and afro-beats in Nigeria. Editor in Chief at Pulse Nigeria, Osagie Alonge, stated that the likes of Wizkid, Davido and Korede Bello should be seen as pop artistes.
It’s just like waking up one morning and naming a genre HipHops or Pops or Reggaes or Jazzes. It’s so wrong #Afrobeat
— Osagie Alonge (@OsaGz) May 12, 2016
The ex-manager of pop artiste Wande Coal, who goes by the single name of Bankulli, feels that maybe African media is to blame, because according to him, very few actually analyse music on the continent and would rather just copy and paste.
@OsaGz everybody write and post what they see . few of you guys do indent analysis of our game . cc @ayenithegreat
— Bankulli (@bankulli) May 12, 2016
Music critics AfroVII join the conversation.
AfrobeatS…. The name annoys me but we snoozed and someone else named it for us. https://t.co/YBkHUpNnAE
— T. Rankïn’ (@AfroVII) May 12, 2016
Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, a TV host, was equally disgusted by the very idea of ‘afrobeats’
@ayenithegreat I’ve been fighting this battle. But I think it’s too late now. Even Nigerians have fed into it. Another identity foisted.
— Ebuka Obi-Uchendu (@Ebuka) May 12, 2016
When its comes to music in the 21st century geographical location did not matter anymore as soon as music lovers are enjoying it. Due to the fact that Wizkid is a Nigerian and sings of Nigeria doesn’t mean he doesn’t sing pop music.
UB 40 are a prominent reggae band formed in Birmingham, United Kingdom in the 70s and one of the world’s best selling musical groups. An entire genre wasn’t created to accommodate them just because they are thousands of kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica.
Why should our own be any different?
Africa needs to reject afrobeats and everyone propagating the nonsense. We need to pay attention to the discussion on pop, afrobeats and Nigerian music stars.
The western media might be forgiven for not knowing better. But the African media can’t be forgiven that easily. After all the erroneous ‘afrobeats’ was allegedly coined by a London DJ of Nigerian extraction a few years.
This inaccurate classification harks at a failure to really understand our music and what it is about.
We are the largest African nation on the planet with shedloads of amazing musical talent. We should be exporting our music to the rest of world as good enough to stand on its own and compete against other artistes in the world.
We should resist the temptation to put ourselves in a box that is not ours just for the sake of acceptance. It has been proven time and time again that our music is good enough.
A similar mistake was made decades ago when we allowed the West pigeonhole our music greats like King Sunny Ade, Oliver de Coque and Ebenezer Obey in the ‘World Music’ category. And so instead of competing against the best in the world, all the African acts are pitted against each other during awards shows.
One would not say Drake does Canadian rap, why then can’t Wizkid be a pop artiste?
Pop music by its nature is very eclectic and varied, often borrowing elements from other styles of music like rock, R&B and dance. But even then there are the core elements that define it; the songs are short to medium length with repeated choruses, melodic tunes and hooks.
Now doesn’t that remind you of Wizkid?
Clarification Credit: Tobi Amoo of NET