Culled from my blog craymistress.

As a child growing up, I was told by my music instructor that music is any sound that is pleasing to the ears, bringing joy to the mind and gladdening the heart. Music is largely believed to be the food of the soul,as meat and bread is of great importance in the nourishment of the body,so is music in the nourishment of the soul. The power of music is felt in every sphere of life,music is a spirit on its own,it intoxicates,with the right kind of music,the right mood can be set,In the words of the great thinker;Plato,“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything; It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good, just, and beautiful”. Music is believed to have therapeutic properties,it calms the mind and restores peace to an otherwise disturbed soul. Till date,the usefulness of music is vast, some students cannot assimilate properly if they do not listen to music while reading, surgical procedures are carried out with cool music playing in the background,sculptors derive inspiration from listening to good music, Patients with specific mental conditions are made to undergo musical therapies as it is believed to aid the healing process,music relaxes the body and the whole being. In the words of a fourteen year-old,"when my earphones are plugged in,the world is shut out",have you ever wondered the magic behind lullaby and a child drifting off to dreamland?Such is the power of music. Noise on the other hand is sound that is "unpleasing" to the ears,irritating and annoying it.


It is therefore saddening that the Nigerian music industry today reel out tons of noise under the guise of making music,day in,day out. I do not understand the motive behind it but the fad now is musicians assaulting the ears of the populace with dirty music, songs with no messages hide under the facade of good beats to corrupt the soul and the mind. Music is supposed to be the food of the soul,what then happens when the soul is fed with the wrong type of music? It becomes malnourished and diseased. We all wonder the reason moral values among youths continue to decline ,it is not unconnected to the type of the music favored by this particular component of the society,the songs are like radio active wastes,seemingly harmless but in reality poisoning the being of whoever listens to it morally and psychologically. Songs with little or no moral message is favored by today's youths,the kind of music the elders cannot listen to without flinching. The messages passed across by these songs is one that talks about sex in blatant way and glorify all manners of vices leaving one to wonder if these songs were subjected to the censor's board,and to think the musicians who sing these worthless songs are encouraged with numerous awards for concocting such rubbish makes one sick. It is so bad that every man walking on the street has a record to his name,social-networking sites are flooded with download links of different songs(mostly worthless ones), songs are released every other day and nobody seem ready to make a difference,musicians who try to do things in a different way are greeted with apathy by the listening audience and are soon forced to join the "great beat,empty music" fad as no one wants to run at a loss. These musicians compromise and make music people want to hear,throwing their talents away in the process. Good music by such maestros as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti,King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey are not appreciated by the youths. These are musicians that passed(and one or two are still passing) the right messages with their songs,their songs are written off by youths as old-fashioned.


The number of delinquent roaming the streets cannot be unconnected to the examples laid down by the so-called musicians, youths are susceptible to emulating their role-models who are mostly musicians blindly,for example,the act of sagging was made popular by hip hop artistes,today's musicians live rough lives, drink excessively,are drug-addicts,they are sexually and morally loose,engage in club brawls and make music about same. Ladies on their part dress as they female musicians do in various videos,the musical videos are soft porns of some sort as they depict women as sex symbols displaying parts of their bodies that should be kept away from public view and men "mauling" at these parts with reckless abandon,all in the name of dancing,these ladies are mostly half-clad and have their faces painted like jezebel herself,this must probably be the reason there are more half-clad women walking the streets of the country than before. Is the situation entirely hopeless?


There are musicians who have changed the world with their music,who have impacted the world positively,the Micheal Jacksons of this world,the Diana Ross,the Onyeka Onwennus,the Victor Olaiyas and even in recent times, musicians like 2face,9ice,Dare Art-Alade,Sound Sultan and even Faze still continue to wow the audience with moral and good music but these individuals are few when compared to the "keep on rocking" type of musicians. What then can be done to reverse the situation?


The National Censor's Board should do a painstaking job in determining what songs and videos should be released to the general public,some of the songs enjoying massive airplay have no business "in the air" in the first place. Songs that do not have positive messages should be banned and those who release such songs illegally(I.e without the knowledge of the censor's board) should be brought to book.


In addition,awards should only be given to deserving musicians,the songs awarded should meet the criteria of good beats, right content and the right messages.


Furthermore,there is a need for value re-orientation ,youths should be enlightened on the right of type of music,they should not follow fads blindly, more often than not, the kind of music a youth listens to is influenced by peers, youths should learn to differentiate between right and wrong. They should be encouraged to listen to the right kind of music,with the right kind of message by the parent and the society.


“ Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful”.
- Socrates