The state of Ghanaian Music at the moment
Where is Ghanaian music now? hmmm
Many ask, Many wonders, but do people know?
It’s no secret that Ghanian artists based in Ghana were not nominated for BET Awards 2020, which has left people asking ‘where is Ghanaian music?’
Ghanian music has had and will continue to live on at the pace that Ghanian artists (their management team included) will allow.
Ghanian music continues to make strides as we all bop our heads and move our waists to the incredible beats, sounds and lyrics of the culture. Still, Ghanian music has historically (and the same can be said today), that it has not measured by sales performance.
Instead, as a people that champion Ghanian music, over 50% of its followers follow from “the sideline” as they download for free instead of building brands and music revenue by purchasing the music of our artists. Incredibly important to note, if WE want to see the Ghanian music industry grow to be recognised on platforms like BET year in, year out, we would need to support our own with our money, our time and our efforts.
Only last year, 2019 Beyoncé released a body of work where she collaborated with numerous African artists including music artiste Shatta Wale and music producer Guilty Beatz who are both Ghanian.
As great as these collaborations were, and the tracks alone spoke huge musical waves across the globe, their waves were not as big as they could have been to their counterparts of other African artist collabs with Beyoncé because their fans did the talking not in exchange for words but the $, as they purchased the tracks of their artists. Many times the statement is made “they should do this, they should do that!” But who is “they?”
In the year 2020, are we still shifting the blame and not raising the flag ourselves? We all have the power to plug and push our music industry but do we not do it out of fear?
When a local press or marketing / PR company want to shine the light on our fabulous artists, so often they are sidestepped for “large corporations”, due to (let’s be frank), our artists being of the mindset that small companies and businesses cannot propel them to “stardom”. #OhYeOfLittleFaith
No wonder there is a battle and a large divide in revenue and popularity from global to national success. Artists cannot demand or expect their fans to push them to stardom if our artists are not willing to meet their fans at the level the fans are at.
We all started from somewhere and somewhere included “the little people”, so why are the little people (small brands & businesses) no longer worth the air time?
We are Ghanian, we are African, so let’s not forget some of our age-old proverbs, one being: the left-hand washes the right and the right-hand washes the left!
Ghanian music can be as large or small as WE choose it to be, but no matter what we think, we need to realise that awards and accolades across the globe are measured by the success of sales, so if we want to see our Ghanian artists amongst the nomination lists of where they belong then WE the people need to stop talking and now ‘walk the talk’ in full support of our beloved artists, and our beloved artists should embrace their grassroots and support smaller business who have the power to propel them on the streets.
Before we go let’s make mention that Stormzy who is of Ghanian heritage is amongst the BET 2020 nomination list, so we all should continue to stand in support of OUR Stormzy no matter what because he is us, we are one Ghana.
Now is the time, more than any, to stand tall in unity.
Lastly, stay up to date with all you need to know about African music at SOA, right here.
The state of Ghanaian Music at the moment
written by SAKEENA
