METAMORPHOSIS OF NIGERIAN MUSIC GENRES

 We used to have music with good stories when we were growing up in the 1980s and early 1990s. Musicians like Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Ayinla Omowura, Haruna Ishola and host of others sang for primarily didactic function. when we heard those songs, we get one or two messages about living positively. They taught people how to live life with in moderate and not to do more than your financial power and capacity can reach. They taught women how to live with men without having domestic problems every time; they also told young ones that education is the only way out of poverty and ignorance. All these lessons from their music went along with good rhythm and heavy percussion. This means that wee were educated and entertained.
   Nigeria music genres have changed from this form of good story to 'pleasure minded' lyrics. Children these days can't master the lyrics because they don't know what the musicians are saying. They do not know whether they [musicians] are speaking English, French, Yoruba, Hausa or Ibo. All they are after is that the performer should be funny enough to make them laugh and dance. No wonder why our moral values have been compromised in the place of pleasure. Musicians these days use foul and outdated words these days not because they want to contribute their quotas to the development of culture and way of life but because they want to sell their record and CDs by all means. It is un-African for a musician and his dancers to come out in nudity while shooting their video. This is out-rightly immoral!
    The cause of this problem should also be shared by the Nation Film and Video Censor Board and Nigeria Communication Commission who do not match their words with actions. They always mandate these musicians to write the popular warning of  'adult only' on their CDs but you hardly see such warning on any CD! Our television and radio station play obscene videos regardless of time. Many young children watch those videos even in the presence of the parents and nobody talks! A Lagos television station shows those kind of video from 12pm to 2pm everyday and they call it 'Music Africa'. I can't see anything Africa in such videos of nudity.
  They repercussion is now manifesting. Our young ones are now acting out the violence they see on television and hear on radio. May God help us!