The people of Nigeria are not ready for another Fela. For now, one Kuti appears to be enough for the kitty.
With scenes of beauty, colour, and music, every corner of the globe celebrated the great works of a man from Nigeria.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti is regarded as Africa’s greatest musician. His classic genre of music, Afrobeats, which has defined core African melodies, and created the solid foundation of a number of fusion genres appears to be timeless. If anything, it gets stronger, with each new experimentation creating a derivative sound.
Nigeria will never have another Fela, or a music visionary that would generate, export and be successful with a new sound. This projection which appears to be cloaked with negativity on the surface bears a number of truths, backed by trends, hindsight, and well, negativity.
Nigeria is the currently Africa’s most popular music country. Our songs are infectious, our distribution keeps pushing boundaries, and our stars fly the highest within and away from the continent. But surprisingly, we fail to generate anything novel, worthy of emulation and acclaim.
Fela Kuti and Femi Kuti in 1983
(Instagram/femiakuti)
Afro-Pop, a genre
backed by Fela’s music, syncopated African, 6-string guitars, brass
arrangements, and synthesizers, has lost its freshness. With each new
song that rolls out of the studio, we go deeper into a genre created by
Fela. Hardly ever do we push the boundary. This is the world we have
created. This is the world we live in.
True sonic creativity can never truly be achieved within the confines of our current music industry. Musicians fuelled by passion, make songs as a reaction to the needs of the current market. The current market being based on the taste of the general populace. The general populace have a rigid taste, consuming the familiar, and showing gross impatience and variable disgust for anything that reeks of unfamiliarity and extensive experimentation.
Performance photos from Felabration 2015 (Day 1 - 4)
(Olorisupergirl)
With this rigid palette for music, the investors have also been held captive by it, throwing their money into acts that can adapt, survive and thrive through acceptance by the people. Creativity needs money to be nurtured and fuelled, and in contemporary Nigeria, the money flows to those who stick with the established script.
Investment flows to the sure thing. Every other script can either be torn up, be rewritten to fit, or the creator would taste penury. No Fela can come from this rigidity and morbid consumer behaviour. Abami Eda might even have flopped in this day and age. The people have the power now. They own the demand, which determines the volume and quality of supply. They are, in a sense, the true creative directors.
Performance photos from Felabration 2015 (Day 1 - 4)
(Olorisupergirl)
What’s way forward? How can we break free from a cycle of recycling?
The power lies in the people, and until the Nigerian populace can develop a sense of adventure, and begin the collective search for a new sound, then can we have music that can define generations. In this age of pragmatism and commercialisation, true art can only be a reflection of the people. Not the reverse.
The people of Nigeria are not ready for another Fela. For now, one Kuti appears to be enough for the kitty.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti is regarded as Africa’s greatest musician. His classic genre of music, Afrobeats, which has defined core African melodies, and created the solid foundation of a number of fusion genres appears to be timeless. If anything, it gets stronger, with each new experimentation creating a derivative sound.
Nigeria will never have another Fela, or a music visionary that would generate, export and be successful with a new sound. This projection which appears to be cloaked with negativity on the surface bears a number of truths, backed by trends, hindsight, and well, negativity.
Nigeria is the currently Africa’s most popular music country. Our songs are infectious, our distribution keeps pushing boundaries, and our stars fly the highest within and away from the continent. But surprisingly, we fail to generate anything novel, worthy of emulation and acclaim.
Fela Kuti and Femi Kuti in 1983(Instagram/femiakuti)
True sonic creativity can never truly be achieved within the confines of our current music industry. Musicians fuelled by passion, make songs as a reaction to the needs of the current market. The current market being based on the taste of the general populace. The general populace have a rigid taste, consuming the familiar, and showing gross impatience and variable disgust for anything that reeks of unfamiliarity and extensive experimentation.
Performance photos from Felabration 2015 (Day 1 - 4)(Olorisupergirl)
With this rigid palette for music, the investors have also been held captive by it, throwing their money into acts that can adapt, survive and thrive through acceptance by the people. Creativity needs money to be nurtured and fuelled, and in contemporary Nigeria, the money flows to those who stick with the established script.
Investment flows to the sure thing. Every other script can either be torn up, be rewritten to fit, or the creator would taste penury. No Fela can come from this rigidity and morbid consumer behaviour. Abami Eda might even have flopped in this day and age. The people have the power now. They own the demand, which determines the volume and quality of supply. They are, in a sense, the true creative directors.
Performance photos from Felabration 2015 (Day 1 - 4)(Olorisupergirl)
What’s way forward? How can we break free from a cycle of recycling?
The power lies in the people, and until the Nigerian populace can develop a sense of adventure, and begin the collective search for a new sound, then can we have music that can define generations. In this age of pragmatism and commercialisation, true art can only be a reflection of the people. Not the reverse.
The people of Nigeria are not ready for another Fela. For now, one Kuti appears to be enough for the kitty.
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