In Malawi scenario or the rest of the
world quality control in this case refers to letting our music pass some form
of litmus test...
Most radio and TV stations complain that
they receive an uncountable music compact disks or sometimes tapes brought by
every Jack and Jill who say are musicians or singers in need of airplay.
Without trying to play a condescending
card to the owners of music outlets, meaning those that have radio, TV stations
or entertainment joints or public spaces like buses that play music, I think if
we are to have quality music, then we need to set up standards.
Once singers and musicians bring their
music, it must be passed through a rigorous due process where it has to pass
all or 90 percent of the prerequisites drawn on the checklist.
The purpose of all this is to certify
quality; some hints could be to look at the quality of sound i.e. is it filling
the whole eardrum? On the other hand, is it trying to pull off the ear? Is it
going to ‘infect’ the eardrum or just use it as a passage as it soothes the
soul?
When listening to it are you feeling
ashamed that the so called musician or singer only exposed their mediocrity?
Are the vocals showing that the one
behind it was gasping for air? What about vocal variations, is it blending with
the instrumentation? Is the music some common organised noise?
I know there could be many areas to look
into before venturing into unknown terrain. At the end of the day standard and
quality enforcement should be the order.
There are some operatives in the radio and
TV stations, and even entertainment joints that, at the expense of their jobs,
let gluttony scarlet red in the teeth.
Those that can be easily caught; you find
every time this unexceptional artist comes to the premises they always demand
to hand in their stuff to the very particular radio or TV presenter or the
people who play music in entertainment joints.
This kind of greed is not motivational in
the would be musician and it encourages them to go to a person who has a mixer
placed in his dining room on his dining table linked with a ‘scraggy’ boom
microphone.
Within two hours the so called musician
will gurgle out noise, which the man owning the dining table and the mixer
placed on it, will mix the panting sound with some computer programmes that
will give it a drumbeat, accompanied by sounds of guitars and percussions.
All this will be happening on the back of
an outcry that Malawi music has and still is struggling to get a place on the
international market.
Some have been attributing this failure
to lack of establishment of a unique music genre but this earns my disagreement
because this happens because artists do not know what they want to achieve.
Our artists will rarely exercise measured
patience when producing their music, even those that are nationally acclaimed,
as our top musicians have no patience to take time before releasing anything
and there for quality is always compromised.
Radio stations will always have no
problems with this, as they will establish several programme specifically
designed to ‘promote’ this kind of local music. If what is meant is to be
achieved is really to promote, then I have a problem with the mediocrity they
are championing.
If by accident or chance a member of an
international music-promoting firm is visiting the country or any of the
websites that have some of the local radios that are streaming online and
catches the hurriedly prepared musical stuff, will they really be encouraged to
come and promote it for the international market?
If we are to achieve quality as a country
and promote local music, then local radio and TV stations and entertainment
joints in collaboration with organisations dealing in and with music and
musical artists have to set up benchmarks, which have to be used if music
produced has to gain airplay.
These outlets need to critically look at
the music videos produced other than broadcasting or playing anything they lay
their hands on.
Even
the news producers for all media platforms should not always carry stories for
mediocre performers who just visit newsrooms, declare they are musicians, and
get story space.
Entertainment writers have to listen to
the music of an artist before they can start glorifying mediocrity. We can do
better with quality control in the music Industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment