KAMPALA: “Why is Nigerian music the heart of African music?”
Nigeria has been called ‘the heart of African music’ because of its role in the development of West African highlife and palm-wine music, which fuses native rhythms with techniques imported from the Congo for the development of several popular styles that were unique to Nigeria, like apala, fuji, jùjú, highlife,
Fela Sowande is undoubtedly the father of modern Nigerian Art Music and perhaps the most distinguished and internationally known African composer. The most significant pioneer-composer of works in the European classical idiom, his works mark the beginning of an era of modern Nigerian Art Music.
Nigeria does not only have a slew of great music talents but also a very vibrant urban music scene. Let us have a close look at Wizkid a Nigerian music hit maker
Wizkid is number 1 in the list of the top 10 richest musicians & artists in Nigeria. Wizkid’s net worth is estimated at 20 million U.S dollars. Apart from singing, Wizkid also secured many endorsements deals with MTN Nigeria and GLO (which paid him N120 million to become its ambassador).
Wizkid soared to the top of the US singles chart in May this year thanks to his collaboration with Canadian rapper Drake on the song One Dance. The remix of his 2015 song ‘Ojuelegba’ which featured Drake was listed by Billboard as one of its “Must Hear” Music podcast which is an achievement to Nigeria’s economy.
This has inspired most of the youth in Nigeria to pursue music and have actually made it happen.
On the other hand, the movie industry commonly known as Nollywood has become stunted and this is why we want to know why this movie industry is still lagging behind
One of the factors to the low development of Nollywood is piracy, it produces about 50 movies per week, The World Bank estimates that for every legitimate copy sold, nine others are pirated in terms of exports. She adds that because there are currently few legal channels for exporting movies, few or no returns go to the filmmakers and practically no revenue goes to the government.
Nollywood actors’ incomes are low. Even the most popular get paid between $1,000 and $3,000 per film. Only a few can claim higher earnings. Actress Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, one of Nollywood’s highest-paid performers, recently topped the charts at 5 million naira ($32,000) per film which is still low.
The evolution of the new digital technology, whereby Nigeria continued to use inexpensive VHS tapes and players that were easily accessible and affordable to consumers. Eventually film technology evolved as movies made on DVDs started to generate huge demand which was not available.
Therefore, Songs by Nigerian artistes enjoy so much rotation on radio and television stations across the continent and even beyond that it is fair to say music has become a cultural export for the west African continent compared to the movie industry.
In addition to that what can Uganda benchmark or adopt from the Nigerian music industry, and these are some of our reviews.
Once the government understands that they can make money; you know they can generate revenues from this, once they understand the intricacies of the music business, I think they would help protect the music industry in Uganda.
The earnings from Nigerian’s music industry have come from telecom firms, brand endorsements as well as music downloads among others hence Ugandans must be well equipped with knowledge on how to earn a living out of those endorsements.Artists can pay taxes; you know what I’m saying. Taxes would help with building roads, creating electricity. And it’s not only about music, it’s everything. You know you need to establish a collecting society so that when radios (stations) play the songs, they pay them which the government has to put in consideration.
When products, brands use your music for their products, they can pay the artiste and you can see that actually it’s going to the artistes you know and then something goes to you, as the government, to help build a good country.
“For God and my country.”
By Suzan Nakibuuka
