The winner of MTN project fame West Africa Season 9, Okiemute Ighlorodje has decried the glorification of the Afro pop to the detriment of other genres of music as she noted that other music genres including Blues, Reggae RNB, Jazz, classical and folk were being stereotyped.
The artiste, who stated this in a recent interview said such stereotype would not give the affected genres and their artistes the opportunity to attain their full potential. The budding singer, whose stage name is also Okiemute urged relevant stakeholders particularly music promoters, radio and television stations to place deserving attention to the neglected genres.
“There is need to understand that music is diverse, there should not be a deliberate attempt to promote a music genre over the other, Afro pop is making a lot of waves over the others because of its promotion.
Whereas there are many people that love other music genres, they should stop stereotyping other firms of music, music is music, if it is of good quality and it follows the rules, it should be appreciated”, she said.
Okiemute said some radio and TV stations especially the music channels adore quality of this stereotype because of their failure to feature the neglected music genres as Afro pop.
“From morning till night, what you hear most of these stations playing is Afro pop music, they do not give the audience the opportunity to make choice, listeners want to make up in the morning, tune to a radio station and listen to cool music.
In the afternoon, they want to listen to mid-day music, cross over tunes before late night, they will like to listen to party songs that will make them shake their body and all that. If listeners are given opportunity to listen to the genres, they will start reciting them and the music will see the light of the day”, she said.
Speaking on the predominance of vulgar lyrics in contemporary music, Okiemute said artistes must by to strike a balance. She said many of the artistes being condemned for vulgar Lyrics in contemporary music, Okiemute said artistes must try to strike a balance. She said many of the artistes being condemned for vulgar lyrics also have songs with lyrics that propagate good values and teach morals. She contended that vulgarity could not be totally taken away from music because it has its social functions.
“Our generation wants to party and have fun, we know the ills in the society, we know about the stress and happenings, but most artistes want to take their listeners out of all these challenges. They use what is being regarded as vulgar music (lyrics) to create the illusion for people to forget their sufferings and move on with life.
The 27-year-old budding artiste and graduate of linguistics and Communication, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), who have so far dropped two singles titled ‘Good Loving’ produced with a video and ‘African Wonder’ noted that the problems of the upcoming artistes like herself were finance and lack of direction as well as difficulty to strike a collabo. He urged the older artistes to carry the young ones along.