THE STATE OF ZAMBIAN MUSIC
By Antonio Mourinho Mwanza
A lot of people have expressed their disappointment with SOME of the music being churned out by SOME of our biggest artists of late; they claim the quality of the music and the level of originality and creativity has started going down; they say the songs are becoming to sound the same or repetitive; according to them, even the messages are becoming repetitive and boring.
Here are some of the reasons why SOME people are getting disappointed with the current state of Zambian music;
- Most of our current music is not original; a number of our Zambian artists are simply chasing TRENDS; they are tel music that is simply following the sound thats trending; if it’s Naija/Afro beats trending or if it’s Amapiano sound that’s trending then they also start following suit. There is generally a lack of ORIGINALITY and CREATIVITY like it was during the height of Kalindula Music of the likes of great maestros such as PK Chishala, Glorious Band, Nashil Pitchen Kazembe, Angela, Sakala Brothers and many more.
- It seems a lot of artists are just focused on producing ‘feel-good music’ that is all about giving and dancing in the clubs and other drinking social places. A lot of music enthusiasts are complaining that it’s now becoming hard to find music that has that deep message that makes one reflect on life, instead it seems the majority of the songs on the market are just about dancing and vibing.
MY OPINION
There is no doubt that the issues of Originality and creativity in our music is a subject of discussion. However, we must understand that most artists like many other people are using their music to raise money to take care of themselves and their families so it’s no-brainier that the majority of them will jump on what’s trending in order to sell more records and increase their visibility and incomes. It’s the safest and most economically prudent thing to do.
Until our music industry is fully developed to a point were all an artist needs is the talent to succeed because the rest of the bills such as buying outfits, cars, security, organising and marketing shows as well as having hard and direct payoffs for their music is all taken care of by the Music Label and Music Marketing Firms; most of our artists will stick to chasing what’s trending than what’s creatively their best works, after all they, just like all of us need to survive.
WAY FORWARD
There is urgent need to fully develop our music industry; this is a multi-billion dollar industry with the potential to create thousands of jobs and business opportunities for our youths! The Ministries of Youth and Sports and Commerce and Industry together with other relevant ministries must come up with clear strategies and engage the Private Sector and the Business World in general to build synergies to help raise the necessary resources needed to develop our music industry into a fully-fledged industry that can produce millionaires.