MUSIC: THE CREATIVE TOOL By Newton Paul

 

    Music is food for the soul. It makes it soar, feel soothing and relived from every burden laid on it.

    Music is the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty or form harmony and expression of emotions.

    Have you realised that the kind of music we listen to reflects in our speech, belief, attitude and mood? The truth is, the music we listen to really x-rays our personality.

    Research conducted by psychologist Jason Renfrew and Sam Gosling suggests that “knowing the type of music you listen to can actually lead to surprisingly accurate prediction about your personality”.

    In the course of the research, they figured out that those that listen to Rap/Hip-Hop which are from artists like Tu Pac and Dr. Dre are usually aggressive or violent, but they tend to have high self-esteem and are usually outgoing.

    People who enjoy Jazz, Blues, and Soul music are found to be more extroverted with high-self-esteem. They also tend to be very creative, intelligent and at ease. While as for listeners of Rock/Heavy Metal, judging from the aggressive image that rock music and heavy metal project, researchers found out that fans of this style of music surprisingly are usually quite gentle. They tend to be creative, but are often introverted and may suffer from low self-esteem.

    Music has a psychological impact on our conscious and subconscious mind however, evoking a kind of feeling. I’m of the opinion that the kind of music written and produced in Nigeria is responsible for eating up the creative mind-set of the citizens especially the youth who ought to be at the apex of creativity.

     Recently, I have been able to compare Nigerian songs and Western songs; though they share several similarities especially in the RnB genre that professes love (and not forgetting the Rap that preaches hate, fame, women, sex and money which is directly opposite to the Soul music in Nigeria and Rock music in the Western world).

    Soul music is much more reasonable in lyrics and contextual construction, same with Rock music. I can see someone shaking his/her head and saying I am lying. Let me prove it right to you.

    I actually wish to promote Rock music in Nigeria though not all genres but some reasonable genre. I came up with a saying: “the beginning of rock music is the beginning of creativity”. I guess you’ve watched some western movies where a soft music fades into the background, suiting or best describing what that particular scene is about. You find out that sometimes goose pimples pops up your skin or you picture yourself in the character’s shoes. Imagine being exposed to such supernova of emotion, you’re likely to explode with tears. Romance can be felt in every ripple of vibration in Rock music unlike most Nigerian songs that are noisy and mean. For every emotion you feel, there is rock music for it. This explains why white people are more romantic than blacks outside climate factor. No offence. Just a simple hard-core truth.

     The Nigerian artists are so many people’s role models but it seems the artists let their guards down and forgets that he/she is someone’s role model. I’m elated that they have been able to compete with fellow western artists and beat them in their own game but I’m not comfortable with the 'lust and materialistic' maggot they’re slowly inputting in the young ones. This stresses on the reason our Nigerian songs cannot be preserved, they are just for the moment and it ends there. If I’m wrong, then why is it that when you are in the club and the DJ doesn’t play any of the latest songs of your favourite artists, you will not be interested in dancing? I doubt if you listen to their old tracks on your own; but there are rock songs that are as old as 10 to 20years back that when you listen to its content, you will weep.

      I was at the studio recently and a boy I met there said he wanted to sing a song, he was asked his studio name of which he said is “G-Wayne” (we know where he stole the name from - Lil Wayne). What struck me the most was when he was asked to sing and he started singing:

“Baby o baby... all I wanna do is love you”

     On hearing that, I was pissed and cut him short; I can hear someone saying I’m a dream killer. Well I’d rather kill what needs to be killed than letting it grow into something that can’t be killed tomorrow which would have killed you before or after reading this article.

     I asked a friend of mine what kind of song she likes and she said “Gospel songs and slow songs that make someone cry”. I further asked why she likes them and she replied “it makes me feel loved”.

    If everyone is been encouraged to do what they choose to do in regards to their talents, ambition and aspirations, I feel we would have very good artists today, not some retired doctor or a 1^st class law student who doesn’t have a job and out of joblessness goes to the studio and records a song which he’s not made or designed to do.

     That will lead me to another article relating to talent as the secondary economy.

Furthermore let me shock you. Last yea, I attended a show organised by a Youth Fellowship “Salt” and I was opportune to see the magnanimity and enormousness of creative youths, who are young Christian artists. I couldn’t condone the Nigerian music industry for not promoting these guys. I strongly believe the likes of Nuefy, Tmax, Ernesty, Rymsta Ray, Jr, and Nutty Josh are the ones likely to bring a change to the Nigerian music industry by the grace of God which they preach about.

    Esterlyn a Christain Band from Boise, Idaho sang a song 'we all need'. Part of the lyrics says:

“We all need faith- the faith to love all that you are

We all need love when there's no hope beyond the door

We all need hope- the hope to live for something more....”

    On hearing this, all my dead faith rose up! I cannot categorically forget the likes of Lifehouse, Paramore, Flyleaf, The Fray, Switchfoot, Hillsong United, Third Day, Leeland, Sanctus Real and so on who go into their closet to bring to us the greatest lyrics and inspiration through their music for us to plug into and get energised.

     My writing this article is not to show you my love for something people consider noise (rock music) but the need to embrace good music. I urge every reader of this article who is an artist or planning to become an artist to sing what evokes edutainment (education + entertainment) and not only entertainment and also for everyone to listen to reasonable music so that their minds can be filled with reasonable content. People need to be educated through literary works like music and movies. 
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