The atmosphere was charged and it was a bunch of different decades laced together. The party had in attendance every adult of every age. The DJ taking this fact into account reeled out songs from different times. Each moment a particular time shows up through the music, a scream of excitement envelops the room in recognition of the memories it evoked. It was a sight to behold.
The DJ sensing the effect creates this mood of ‘lets see what your time says’ he moves from the 70s to 80s to 90s to the present. The dance floor came alive with some old school sounds and the crowd sang along almost not needing the DJ to mix anymore. It was an enchanting night, taking loads of minds down sweet memory lane, it is said that songs speak the mind of many.
So thinking about it (as a generation old school) without meaning to think less of today’s vibes and of course not taking away any thing from the creativity of those who dared.
Truly and truly, these days you struggle to make out the words of a song and then almost be at war with your mind to comprehend the meaning of what is being sang about.
I often wondered how my 15-year-old son would sing along every rap song from the western world to the konkosa lyrics back here. Interestingly I see him enjoying both worlds. So I wanted to hear what he hears and by extension what most teenagers hear that gives them the vibe. He plays a song from his collection and he begins to sing to it like he was the artist so I ask him to please say the lyrics in normal language not the music language so I can at least hear the wordings and make sense of them, to my shock, the words were apt, speaking to the times we live in. The techno generation however I hear the old school being adopted by the new school. The infusion is most times confusing.
For the new school the songs are often about the wonder of intercultural innovations, a time of free will and reckless decisions that hold minds down, a time of wealth is more powerful than knowledge, a time of globalization being the beam of every existence. They sing of attitude, they sing of escapes through drugs, through sex, through association of friends, of gatherings that show how much one can out do the other in fashion, cars, girls and crime….they sing of a frustration of not being heard, of not being giving the free will to display what they think they know best…flamboyance in the blings and sags and often lives go with it to death.
It locks out the morals and great teachings of parents, they sing of being their own gods and goddesses who need no direction to navigate through life, you see them pulling along their kind towards this ideology that it becomes a movement, that every consequence from actions are blamed on the society not on them. These expressions become an identity that almost guides them through most of their lives but towards the end it feels like the pop culture popped their lives and then it is too late to fit into the normal.
But I heard another thing, a tell tale of very sophisticated intellectually stimulated creativity. How do they arrange these weird words and come out with a top chat material that as old school as I thought I was, it made sense and I nod to it…its God’s plan. And thing goes skriii pahpah. I want an Audi in every color. Sekeleku. I’m hotter than fire. Gbe body eee. It is all a vibe.
The beat is on another level, the dance steps so aerobically tailored that we the old school sweetly compete without shame and sometimes we out do the creators.
My take, in whatever time and generation music is a powerful tool. It cuts through the mind and and soul. It molds the mind to think and act in a certain way. It even pushes for an uprising in an unjust society and soothes a turbulence that rages forever as life takes man through the roads less and more travelled.
Music has been said to be the language of love. If you are in doubt listen to Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright -With you I’m Born Again. – (Come give me your softness, comfort me through this madness, woman don’t you know with you am born again. Come give me your sweetness, now there’s you, there is no weakness. Lying in your arms am Born again) Love has never been so sweetly and powerfully expressed. That’s our old school.
However love can be found in today’s songs even though more visually expressed with things seen with the eyes and not the heart. (Baby if you follow me, I go buy you Bugatti, mo fe ra Versace).
Whatever age you fall into, one thing remains, every generation comes alive with its style and innovations expressing them as beat as they can. The dilemma today is how can the lyrics change to guide the custodians of our future right that we don’t end up having a lost generation with no sense of ownership of moral standing.
OK friends I pray you find your own song. Till I write again, I love you for reading.
Ambassador Adaobi Alex-Oni writes from Lagos, Nigeria.