The Good, The Bad And The Ineffective

I've recently gotten into a very heated debate with one of my friends, let's call him Maestro, concerning music and i'm going to try my best to summarise the conclusion of this debate into this post. It all began when Maestro pointed out to me that music today is, in his opinion, rubbish. This is something i hear from a lot of people and it always bothers me. I am of the opinion that regardless of your tastes, there are always people that do 'good' music. They aren't always in the pop charts, but they exist, provided you have a heart to search for them.

Now, Maestro couldn't disagree with this, but his own point was that modern pop music, the music that we have constantly shoved down our throats is of a lower quality than in eras past. He said that there is less creativity, less originality and far less musicality and integrity. This is, again, something i take issue with, not least of all because i am of the opinion that people need to stop looking back to the past with such rose tinted spectacles. People often seem to forget that for as long as music has been produced, it has been an industry, there has been money to make and to lose. The way in which we consume music has changed drastically, especially in our lifetime, but the reasons for creating it have not.

Motown acts as the perfect example of what i am talking about. I've noticed that people often treat Motown, Stax and 60s music in general with a reverence befitting a sacred book. Don't ever get it twisted, i absolutely adore Motown music, it is an inspiration and there have been times in my life where i have found myself listening to nothing but. However, we mustn't forget that it was a business. Berry Gordy applied the same principles that he had picked up from working on the car assembly line at Ford to the way he ran his label. There was a tried and tested team of musicians, writing for tried and tested artists, to recreate the tried and tested sound that seemed to be a hit with the American public of that time. We often compare artists of today to artists of that era, looking disfavourably on the musicians of our time, but we shouldn't forget that most of our musical idols were in much the same position as the pop stars of today: They had a team of songwriters, writing there hits for them and they were just as likely to change their sound for the sake of popularity as any band or musician is today.

This, Maestro agreed was true, but he countered saying that though the form of pop music stays the same - a business, like any other, subject to supply and demand - the substance has slowly gotten worse. His point remained, musicality had been lost. In a terrible and vicious cycle, the public had become musically stupid and the artists had degraded their musical integrity to accommodate this. This was a fair point. I looked at the Black Eyed Peas' latest single, 'The Time' and had a hard time trying to compare it in terms of 'musical integrity' to The Beatles' 'I Feel Fine'. However, i believe that you appreciate music on different levels, for different reasons. These levels don't necessarily sit stacked on top of one another with each descending level having less significance than the one before it. Rather, you have different levels existing side by side, different, but equal.

I was once told by another friend that, ultimately, the only way to judge music is to strip it of its context and class it as either 'good', or 'bad'. Whilst i could sympathise with this friend's sentiment i had to disagree. The terms 'good' and 'bad' are subjective and mean very little. They have no substance to them. Instead, i prefer to look at music in terms of what is 'effective' and 'ineffective'. I am of the opinion that music must be taken for what it is and if a song is crafted to convey a pure and majestic beauty and then does that, it validates itself in the same way that a song that is created to get people moving on the dance floor does if it fulfills that purpose. When i hear Soulja Boy's 'Crank That', there is nothing that will stop me from getting to the middle of the floor and when i hear Chopin's 'Étude Op. 10, No. 3' i simply sit and let its beauty wash over me. I listen to them for entirely different but equal reasons.

This wasn't the end of our discussion, but from that point on we tended to simply go over the same ground repeatedly, neither one of us producing any profound argument-winning point. In the end we decided to label him a pessimist, at least in part, despairing for the state of pop music and the minds of those who consume it, and me, an optimist, a man of the belief that for the most part, people enjoy mindless pop music on the level it is meant to be enjoyed but are fully capable of enjoying Debussy on an entirely different level...

That's not being overly optimistic, is it?

The 'I's Have It

It has been pointed out to me by two of my friends that i have a very terrible habit. I refuse to capitalise the pronoun, i. Now, this started off as the innocent mistake of a young child, not quite sure of the basic rules of grammar, but now it has taken on a degree of purposeful defiance.

I laugh in the face of the accepted wisdom, with a smirk on my face and a maddened glint in my eye. It's with the same reckless abandon that i often litter my sentences with commas, all Willy Nilly, wherever i feel like... Okay, that's not entirely true. The truth is, i love grammar, far more than i should. I often find simple texts impossible to read because, improperly punctuated, my poor brain simply can't understand, often to my embarrassment.

No, my dislike of the capitalised did begin as the honest mistake of a young boy, but has grown in to a strange, child-like irrationality. When i see a capital I in a sea of lowercase letters, it just looks wring. To me, it is the equivalent of going to the heart of Croydon, a place well known for its 'Chavs', only to find Prince Charles, desperately trying and failing to blend in with the locals. It's just silly.

However, i am fully aware that this view is irrational and i am willing to consider adopting the correct way of writing, so i suggest we put it to the vote. Could all those in favour of me capitalising my pronoun Is, please raise their hands. Could all those against now do the same. Are there any abstentions? Right, the aye's have it, i'm not changing. I'll continue to wallow in my own brand of illiteracy. Before any of you demand a recount, i'd like to point out that this isn't a democracy, this is a dictatorship. The voting was purely for show. In closing i would like to thank you for reading my vacuous inanity and point out that i am fully aware of the fact that i used the phrase 'Willy Nilly' in this post, what of it?

I'd like to dedicate this to Wolfy and Miss Thing*

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

Stepping Out Into The Motherland

I'm Nigerian. Now, because i like the sound of my own voice, or, in this case, the look of my own words, i'm going to write a little exposition on that first sentence. I was born in London (Well, actually that has been brought into dispute in recent years. It seems that the hospital in which i was born is in a sort of no-man's land between London and Essex, so i may be an Essex boy. Make of that what you will). I am a product of England, but i am not English. I am British and proud to be so, but I was raised by my Nigerian parents, surrounded by their Nigerian friends and their Nigerian family; a microcosm of Nigeria within England. I am Nigerian.

Let's put that strangely phrased exposition to one side as the question of my identity is not the intended subject matter of this blog. I simply wanted to say a little something about my country. If you've ever heard a Nigerian talk about Nigeria or its people, you may have gotten quite a negative impression of the place. We often speak of a politics that is so corrupt that a not-so-uncommon tool, utilised by the ambitious statesman is assassination and a people so crooked that if you get robbed, you would avoid calling the police to avoid paying the money they'd demand for being called out.

Though these things do have an element of truth to them, the country is not quite as bad as we often make it out to be and i feel it should be pointed out that amongst all the peoples of the African Diaspora we have taken to white over blue collar crime with, arguably, the greatest zeal. Say what you will, but a good ol' fashioned scam, or 419 as we like to say, doesn't hurt nearly as much as getting pistol whipped for refusing to hand over your wallet. Well, it hurts less physically. I can't quantify the kind of pain a woman must feel when she discovers that Prince Babatunde does not want to make her his Princess and is in fact not real and the thousands of Pounds she sent over did not go towards fighting off a small military coup...

The negative image that Nigeria enjoys is not one cultivated entirely by Nigerians but also by the media and general misinformation. So often i am asked whether there is electricity in Nigeria. My ususal response is that there's not. I explain that upon arriving in Nigeria, you are stripped of your clothes and in their place given a simple loin-cloth made of cow hide. You are then provided a spear and instructed in how to hunt for your food and generally commune with nature. It is not until i speak about the best way to cool Monkey brains that the average person realises that i'm not being serious.

Nigeria has a certain vulgarity to it, but there is a profound beauty in it, too. From the moment you step off the plane, you know that you have arrived. The heat hits you and you can feel an energy. There is life, laughter and just a little bit of chaos in the air. The sky is made up of a subtly different colour pallet to that of an English sky. You see light pastel colours, purples, blues, oranges contrasting with the dark green of palm fronds. You see a city bustling with a vibrant people and you can feel a rich history.

In looking over this post, it's occurred to be that i drifted far from the point of my intention for it. I wanted to express what a powerful feeling it is to step off that plane and feel something move, perhaps my blood rejoicing to be home, to drive through a beautiful land and to have all my senses assaulted with the spirit of that place, to be confronted with this place of infinite promise...

I'll do it better next time.

There Is No Limit To The Amount Of Times I Can Listen To This Song

I have been playing this song on repeat. It is amazing. You're entitled to disagree. I'm entitled to know that you're wrong.

The King Of Comedy

I've just looked over my previous entries and it has occurred to me that they are nearly devoid of humour. I don't understand how this has happened, as i am Hi-larious. It's actually uncanny how funny i can be. It is a wit born of both divine inspiration and hard work. I practice...  :)
Unfortunately my blog appears to not reflect this thus far and i fear it may be too late. The trains have left the tracks and are headed for collision. All i can do is watch as it all comes to a head, and perhaps get toasty off the flames and scavenge from the wreckage...

I'm not really sure exactly what those last parts of the metaphor refer to.

The Say Hip Hop Is Dead...

I have heard so many rappers utter the phrase 'hip hop is dead' over the years, so much so that i'm forced to wonder when it has ever been alive. Common says the line in Kanye West's 'Get 'Em High' and Nas crafted an entire song around the bold statement and as much as i love these two rappers, in particular the former, i am forced to disagree.

This image is by the artist Inua Elam. The writing reads 'They Say Hip Hop is dead, i'm here to resurrect me', taken from the aforementioned Kanye West song. 

They tend to make these claims based on the idea that hip hop has become far removed from its roots. What was once a way of expressing the social injustice that African Americans were forced to suffer under and bear witness to every day has now become the medium through which opportunistic young Blacks can get rich quick.  Provided they are willing to cash in on America's obsession with needless violence and criminality - 50 Cent put it aptly when he said that 'America's got a thing for this gangsta shit' - or simply become professional buffoons, they will be granted easy riches. Not wealth, though, only riches. I can assure you there's a difference. 

Now whilst i can, to an extent, see how someone can look disdainfully on the state of hip hop today, it also has to be pointed out that a music so young is bound to evolve. Hip hops roots can be traced back no further than the 70s and the late 70s at that. It is barely 40 years old and much like the musical traditions that have come before it, it will change both normatively and structurally. That's just the nature of the beast. Rather than crying for what has been lost, you should embrace what has come. 

In closing, i would like to turn to Mos Def. On his 'Black On Both Sides' album he speaks of hip hop and gives an exposition as to his thoughts when people ask him 'where is hip hop going?' His answer is brilliant. He says that we should stop treating the music as if it is a giant on the hill. Hip hop will be whatever the people are. Provided the people live, Hip Hop will live. 

Case closed. 

A Small Disclaimer

It has been pointed out to me by a good friend, and i must say that i in part agree, that people who blog can be very irritating. I am not necessarily speaking of all bloggers, but there are a good few that are pretentious, ego-egotistical people, who suffer from an inflated sense of self. They fancy themselves experts on everything when they in fact know nothing.

I want it to be clear, i fully expect that i will be one of the irritating ones, but i feel that i should be given some credit for being self aware. The fact is, i know that my views on the world mean very little to a very few, but i shall express them anyway, and that's not so ego-egotistical, is it? As for fancying myself an expert on everything, i must admit that i am terribly guilty of that crime, but consider this post my disclaimer. I shall talk as if i know everything about everything, but i am fully aware that i know very little about not a lot.

I hope this shall be enough to satisfy my friend and my self.

(Reading this post back, it has occured to me that by it's very nature it is an exercise in pretension)...

*sigh*

Now I Feel Exposed

I've finally started a blog. I've said that i would do this for years and have never gotten round to it. Something about exposing my thoughts and feelings to the wide world web has always seemed rather daunting to me. Now don't get me wrong, i can be quite opinionated and i am not generally too shy to share my opinions with other. (Though i can't guarantee that i will always be angry or ranting, the title of this blog is not a complete misnomer and i am not just referring to my socio-economic status).

No, it's something about exposing my ideas to people that i've never met before that seems frightening. Now i'll have to be held accountable for what i say and that's ever so slightly terrifying. Worse yet, perhaps no one will care what i say and i'll have my insignificance rubbed in my face. Neither of these options seems like very much fun, but being held to account for what i say and believe is something that i feel i should embrace, rather than run from. As for no one caring what i write, perhaps no one will. I don't think it's really about.

This is about the fact that i really love words. I love to turn a phrase. I really do love to share my opinions with people and this seems like an appropriate medium through which to do that. I have no idea what this blog will be about, but i think I'll enjoy writing it and i really hope that at least one person will enjoy reading it.

I can only hope.