Rap Dacta Okyeame Kwame has called for a holistic approach in studying the dynamics of art before concluding that modern songs lack storylines and messages.
According to him, the world has transitioned from the audio-visual era to the visual-audio era, hence musicians don’t have to necessarily deliver a tale.
His comment came as a response to broadcaster Tommy Annan-Forson who said in a media interview that musicians now “blabber” and did not provide genuine content.
“I virtually don’t listen to our [modern] music because there’s nothing to understand. There’s really nothing to understand. It’s just blabber music. There’s no storyline,” he said.
Okyeame Kwame in a social media post explained that Annan-Forson was rather talking about “pop” music.
“I want to assume he meant ‘pop’ music. This statement is very controversial because we are no more in the audio-visual era; we are in the visual-audio era. The songs are abstract and simple, and the tales are told in the videos, ‘visualisers,’ TikTok dances, etc.,” he indicated.
Okyeame Kwame added that popular music nowadays paid less attention to using lyrics to tell stories as there were other elements to help achieve the same impact.
“The background elements are now being used to elaborately express the stories behind the songs. So, yes, pop music is not lyrically telling stories. It is intentional. They leave some meaning to audience interpretation so that the listener can take part through interpreting the song through a social media reaction (dance, skits, speech, etc.).
“This phenomenon is because we are now in the visual-audio era and not the audio-visual era. Let’s look at art with respect for the creators and the audience equally. That’s how we can fully appreciate the ‘why’,” he added.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
