Not many people are unfamiliar with the concept of the spoken word through song. It is not uncommon to put into song things you would like to remember. Education is made a lot easier where there is a sing-along. Ask little children who are fans of the show; Barney and friends! Guardians of the children usually cannot help learning those songs and are educated in the process, or they get reminded of some facts they could have forgotten. Other children’s shows thrive by the same principle and the messages of the songs learnt stick and remain for long periods of time. I remember that it was one of those songs that helped me remember Avogadro’s law in a Chemistry examination. The power of the spoken word through songs! For you to register the information deep within you is only a part of this two-fold magic. The other part which is very important is the concurrence of unseen forces with confessions. An adage to that effect states that the things you call to yourself, you attract. So with a song, you stand a chance of committing the words to memory and attracting to yourself the things that you confess through the songs!
Just as powerful is the theory of pictures. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Not much proof is needed for this as everyone has at one time or another been at the point where it was just an image that reminded them of an event, or a circumstance. Little wonder then that advertising agencies put up billboards with images of new products, all built around specific colour themes. Just a glimpse of such can seat in the viewer’s mind and not be recalled for a long period of time. This can make a product that is relatively new in the market and completely unused by a buyer become his favourite simply because the images have made their way into his sub-conscious.
The way a writer can buy his reader over in the orchestration of words is another area worthy of attention. It is almost synonymous with the way a lawyer in an American court phrases his points in his closing statements to the jury in the movies we see. The end result is that readers who do not have particularly strong views about the issues being debated could end up defending the writer in future arguments (without even having a good base knowledge of issues, in the first place). There is no doubt about the fact that it is based on these three theories that the media industry is built. The television advertisements that we see; the newspaper and billboard advertisements; and the beautifully crafted articles we read in magazines, journals and newspapers are proof of the veracity of the channels of communication.
The story turns sour when you bring yourself to the realization that the obscenities of yester years are the proud rulers of the airwaves today. If you grew up in the 70s or earlier, or were raised by old (or old-fashioned) parents, you should not have much difficulty relating to this. Almost all movies back then were decent. The television stations operated for eight hours a day, or less and you were pretty sure that the programmes being aired were family-friendly. These days you need to engage the “Parental Control” facility on your television to be sure that your children (and even you!) are protected. Yet the things you are scared of are only pictures, still or motion! Billboards are not much better: What has a half-naked woman’s photograph got to do with a motor-cycle, or fruit juice?
The musical videos that are being shot these days do not help matters at all; the existence of television channels dedicated to showing such videos is even more damaging. The daringly skimpy clothes the ladies wear, the suggestive maneuvers of the dancers and the provocative acts of the ‘stars’ are at best scary when you consider the signals being sent to young and upcoming generations, who make up a larger percentage of the audience these days. Perhaps we were not too bothered when such videos came from Hollywood only. It was easy to blame those whom we could not even hold responsible for the calamity that was befalling us then. Now that such videos and worse are being created and produced within the shores of our nation brings us to terms with the situation we have on our hands. Yet, we are easily distracted by the quality of the videos and are impressed enough to overlook the messages being passed through those ‘lovely’ videos.
A young friend of mine and I once had a conversation about the musical videos he saw. I felt uncomfortable with the images therein and I said so. The young man looked at me with an expression that asked why I was being old-fashioned and said to me, “it is only a video”! Of course it was; and its effects were far-reaching! Twenty years ago, our rich culture would not have allowed such things, but now we have become so liberal that we gather the wheat and the tares with them. Particularly worrisome for me is the fact that a children’s party these days would have a DJ who would play some of these new songs and you would see the children imitating the dance steps of the artistes in the videos. Scary!
Another trigger point is the words and messages of the songs accompanying the videos (or is it the other way round?). Again, we can pardon the songs from abroad and blame it on their culture, but what shall we say about our local artistes? Forget about the re-branding project for which some of them would like to sing and make quick money from the government, most of the songs we hear are destructive. Unfortunately, those are the songs that end up as hits and make the artistes wealthy overnight. Imagine a song that is all about a woman’s backside, or the one that speaks of how a white man was scammed and prides its writer as the successful conman who orchestrated it all. There are many more like that! It makes me wonder why clean artistry is not being celebrated. The one that gets to me the most is that which speaks of pandemonium in town. Our country being in the state it is, perhaps aggravated by such negative confessions on the lips of a large chunk of its citizenry, should be guided by all on the path of recovery. Yet, here we are condemning it and further subjecting it to depravity not only by the words we speak (and sing), but also by using the (un)popularity of these songs to promote such untoward behaviour. Where are those artistes like Funmi Adams, Princess Bunmi Olagunju, Vero Marioghae and Sunny Okosuns who ruled the airwaves with songs of patriotism and deep sense of nationalism? While parents and teachers are trying to turn their wards to hard work, preaching its numerous rewards, some elements are making success in showing the youth that get-rich-quick syndrome is real. How shameful!
The next time the National Video and Films Censors Board (NVFCB) would endorse or ban songs, the contents of such should be critically examined. As far as I am concerned, some of those songs and videos that have been put out of circulation are much better than some of those that have been allowed to stay. We must not fail to accord the media the importance of its role in developing our nation. Bad or negative press should be frustrated, and while we await the people at the top to take an action that would sweep across the nation, each citizen owes society the responsibility of screening the media items that come our way.
No comments:
Post a Comment