It concerns me that music writing is still not a lucrative endeavour when the African music industry itself is a vibrant galaxy of musical genres. I cannot be certain if this is because the focus of some journalists has narrowed or their ideas of audience needs (and abilities) have narrowed. It just seems that people do not take music and musicians as seriously as they could. This might have to do with the attitude that a music career itself is not a strong career choice.
Getting assigned the entertainment beat
and having a few columns for music in a magazine or newspaper (print or online)
is not the same as having a whole publication dedicated solely to music.
The internet is inundated with music
bloggers and music sites showing that people like to talk about music just as
much as they like to listen it and download it for free. Professional
journalists, especially in Africa do not seem
to be taking up the opportunity to join or expand the conversation.
As large as the online music
blogosphere is, it is still left on the fringes of “normal” life. Most bloggers
have day jobs and do not have the resources to invest in exhaustive tales about
an artist’s music. Some blogs while engaging and well-written (even better than
most journalistic pieces) do not have access to the artists. That music writing is not a worthwhile
pursuit, that it is something that one does in their spare time and will often
play second fiddle to people’s “real” careers is precisely the problem.
Music news has devolved into up to the
minute updates about a rapper’s latest arrest with a subsequent blow by blow
account of their trial. It is far easier to find news about a star’s latest eccentric
behaviour, often involving amateur porn, drugs and a car, than it is to find an
article that properly weighs on their album or live stage performances. Musicians
have grown increasingly hostile towards journalists because the only brand of
journalism they have been dealt was the gossipy kind.
There are more pop culture references
to a musician’s personal failures than to their music. Ts’eliso Monaheng[1] pointed
out that we never got a chance to critically discuss Brown Dash’s music or
kwaito music as a whole before he passed away. But we definitely knew about his
troubles with TS Records. The same is true for Brenda Fassie and a litany of
other artists. We learnt about the alleged beef between Don Jazzy and D-Banj
when D-Banj migrated to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music. It saddens me that the only
legacy some artists may leave behind is the theatrical narration of their trials
and tribulations, truthful and otherwise, all over gossip rags.
On the other hand, artist interviews
have become boring recitations of cookie cut questions and if the artist is well-liked
it can become hagiographic. Empty similes, vague explanations and convoluted
descriptions of songs are characteristics of current writings about music. Television
interviews no longer serve to unpack an artist and their music. It is simply
another (often empty) chat to promote the musician’s newest CD. People would
sooner copy-paste a whole interview than engage with an artist’s words and
ideas to tell their narrative as creatively as possible but remaining as
accurate as possible.
I am not suggesting that a journalist
is better equipped to cover an artist than a blogger. I am also not arguing
that the quality of bloggers works is bad. Well, some are terrible. I am
arguing that journalists have industry backing – the equipment and the money to
make several journeys a month to cover a story. They have greater access to the
artist and other industry insiders than most bloggers do. And yet, music
journalism has been cast to the fringes of the journalistic profession, to fill
up the middle pages of the Sunday paper. I feel we – not just writers,
journalism students, musicians but everyone - are missing out on the
opportunity to interact with our music at a much deeper level than just hooking
up our earphones to the artists that we love. I could even argue that the art
itself (music) is suffering from this dearth in discourse.
Some will say that the peer to peer
sharing of music records and our beloved geeks who digitise vinyl religiously
(I love you), have made the music journalist an irrelevant critic.
I believe there is a market for
professionals who can write about music to provoke, excite and inform music
lovers. Music journalism has the capacity to expand the conversation and
connect music communities who otherwise would not have known about each other.
There are a few music lovers in the world who will trawl the large sea of 1s
and 0s to find a different type of sound.
However, these professionals cannot act
as experts or specialists about any type of music. Music journalism is not a
way of telling people who or what is good or not. I believe it is way to add to
the musical discussion and not monopolise it. There is a gap in music writing
that needs to be filled if for no other reason than to etch a musician’s legacy
into the history books so that we too can have a museum of music. Well, as far
as African music is concerned. And we Africans know what it is like to have our
histories written by somebody else.
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