I am not in support of how 2Face
once appeared to justify the lack of
university education, particularly
since many look up to him as a role
model but I am also not going to
make a big deal about any need,
perceived or otherwise, for popular
musicians and creative people to go
get a university education or engage
in some music literacy program. The
latter could be indeed counter-
productive; music literacy and music
education could limit, inhibit or out
rightly terminate the capacity of
musicians to make the kind of music
majority of music consuming
populations like to hear.
Today is International Literacy day
and the theme this year is Literacy
and Sustainable Societies . The
UNESCO Director-General has
appealed for literacy to be fully
recognized as one of the most
powerful accelerators of sustainable
development. The argument here is
that the future starts with the
alphabet. Going through a statement
such as the foregoing only makes me
laugh at what have become the
anthem by most of our musicians. I
am not laughing at persons who hold
the above view but those who have
failed to realize how true it is. The
future not only starts with the
alphabet, the absence of the alphabet
also wipes out the past. I am one of
those who take pride in the glory of
past African civilizations and in the
wisdom of our fore-fathers. But to
what point? Our fathers relied on
oral transmission of knowledge
rather than written transmission
(literacy). All that wisdom is hardly
surviving. The beauty of indigenous
music, language, medicine and
indeed spirituality is being eroded by
the absence of sufficient literacy or
no literacy at all. This year’s theme of
International Literacy Day couldn’t
be more accurate and reflective of
the erosion of Africa’s glorious past
and the death of a glorious future for
Africa even before such future is
born. Whatever government that has
ears let her hear. This is a message
the Chinese have no need of.
It is often thought to be wise to
suggest to a young person who wants
to build a career in popular music to
go get music education. What such
advice fails to take into consideration
is that people are not really interested
in the music. They are interested in
being entertained. The more
entertainment an artiste can ingest
into his music and the more real
music can be expunged from
his music the more likely such artiste
is to succeed. You can’t go on using
knowledge acquired from formal
music training and music education
in popular music and expect to be a
best-selling musician. I can imagine
harmonically subjecting hip-hop
music to the rules of tonal harmony
or even good parallel harmony. Good
music, bad sales! The problem is once
you acquire that music education, it
becomes extremely hard if not
impossible to convincingly
demonstrate the lack of music
training and literacy required to
succeed. It is simpler not to have
bothered with that education.
Nigeria does not have a music literacy
culture. She did not have it in her
traditional systems and she is making
no serious efforts at developing one
in these contemporary times. Thank
God for other means now existing for
the documentation of music. Music
notation can as well go to hell. How
terrible wrong. Pop musicians and
artistes are the more popular and better
known musicians. But these are not the
‘real’ musicians. To be a real musician,
you must have music education and
training and must have acquired at
least basic music literacy skills.
Nigerian popular music artistes
appear to have conquered Africa and
are on their way to world
domination. They are lucky, they are
not impeded by music literacy,
education and training. The Nigerian
‘real’ musicians however couldn’t
dare to challenge not to talk of
conquer their backyard. They are
unlucky; they are impeded by the lack
of music literacy, education and
training. Yes. Majority of Nigerian
musicians are music illiterates ;
including singers, saxophonists,
trumpeters, keyboard players, bassists
and drummers … the whole lot! Unless
and until as a country, Nigeria decides to
develop a culture of music literacy,
Nigerian real musicians will NEVER take
their place and dine on International
music tables.
Notwithstanding that I advice pop
music artistes not to go for music
literacy programs and therefore keep
their chances of success higher, I
must say that having basic literacy
skills is not enough to get the best of a
career on International stage. A
complain that there are no structures
in the Nigerian music industry may
be valid, but the situation is the exact
opposite on the International stage.
To operate successfully on the
International stage, Nigerian pop
artistes need to deploy the basic
literacy skills which almost all already
have. They need to read materials
which will help them to understand
how music business is run. A lot of
that exists in the legal terrain. They
must make that effort to appreciate
the basics of how the law affects the
music business. (I am sure that by
now, artistes such as Brymo,
Mo’Cheddah and Soul E would have
learnt their lessons ). They must apply
their education to the creation of the
music and the business of it. All
industries, engineering and
construction, accounting, banking
and finance, oil and gas, energy,
transportation, trade, etc. apply the
law and solutions it offers. It is not
out of stupidity but out of wisdom.
My submission is that the music
industry having its primary
investment as intellectual property,
which is a legal subject, ought to take
the law more seriously than it
currently does. If our Nigerian
musicians continue to act like illiterates
and take that to the international stage,
they will be losing hundreds of millions
without even knowing it. This is my
message to Nigerian musicians for
2015 International literacy day.
Written by:-
Justin Ige is Managing Partner at
Creative Legal, a Media and
Entertainment Law practice |
www.creativelegal.com.ng ,
mailjustinige@gmail.com,
Justin.ige@creativelegal.com.ng
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