Music is perhaps one of the best examples of this, with the
recent explosion in the popularity of ‘Afro-pop Music’. Though it performs an
important role in cultural exchange and encourages creativity that enriches the
international art scene, the phenomenon can also cause problems. Many diverse
forms of music may be homogenized with the goal of delivering a consistent
product. In these situations, there is little place for certain musical
practices that are vital to the process of performance and tradition in certain
communities especially in Nigeria and Africa.
Many
forms of performing arts are under threat today. As cultural practices become
standardized, many traditional practices are abandoned. Even in cases where
they become more popular, only certain expressions may benefit while others
suffer.
Music,
dance and theatre are often key features of cultural promotion intended to attract
foreign music investors in Nigeria and regularly feature in the international
music market. Although this may bring more visitors and increased revenue to a
country or community and offer a window onto its culture, it may also result in
the emergence of new ways of presenting the performing arts and culture, which
have been altered for the music market.
African
contemporary music, commonly called Afropop, is as diverse as the African
continent itself. It encompasses more than 50 genres, which in turn convey an
array of languages, cultures, histories, political movements and personal
stories.
The
public radio show Afropop Worldwide,
along with its website Afropop.org
is a leading source of information, commentary and criticism on African music
around the world. So to put together a primer on Afropop, the executive
producer Sean Barlow shared his picks for the top 10 most popular genres within
Afropop music which includes: Afro-beats, Coupé-Décalé, Shaabi, Soukous,
Mbalax, Tsapika, Kwaito, Tuareg blues, Reggea and Hippop.
However,
when you start mentioning unique artiste in Nigeria that promotes our cultural
heritage from the like of Yemi Alade, Phyno, Olamide, D’banj and offcourse
Chidinma Ekile aka Miss kedike must be mentioned due to her audacity in
promoting Nigeria culture via her songs and fashion style in her musical
videos.
While
promoting cultural heritage can contribute to reviving traditional performing
arts and give a ‘market value’ to intangible cultural heritage, it can also
have a distorting effect, as the performances are often reduced to show adapted
highlights in order to meet market demands in other continents. Often,
traditional music forms are turned into commodities in the name of
entertainment, with the loss of important forms of community expression. In
other cases, wider social or environmental factors may have a serious impact on
performing traditional music. Quality sound production, for example, can
deprive a community of good music to make traditional instruments used to perform
music.
According
to Chidinma Ekile, “I wear mostly African prints- Aso-oke, Ankara, anything that has
African prints: because the style of my music is Nigerian, my dressing has to
depict that I’m Nigerian so that is why I wear African prints” see kedike
video, oh baby ft Flavour and jankoliko videos.
As a
result, Chidinma has gotten so many accolades and nominations due to her
massive and continuous promotion of Nigeria culture and heritage all over the
world such as KORA Awards, NMVA, NEA, The Headies, City People Entertainment
Awards, Channel O Music Video Awards, MTV Africa Music Awards.
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