Music is a changing art but its subjective relevance makes it difficult to objectively measure what’s good music—and what is not. Regional and global music industries are packed with countless musical artistes who are constantly in a fierce battle, in order to stay relevant.
This aggressive battle and the loose nature of pop-culture present a perfect platform of unadulterated antics—with many musicians riding on the shocks of their immoral activities to remain relevant. It doesn’t really matter how attention or publicity is generated; every publicity has a worth, they all come with name calling.
Beyond the usual artistes’ collection of necessary and unnecessary tactics to remain in the news, only a few are able to musically evolve—to the extent that, the deep touches of their songs are able to effortlessly push their names year after year and sometimes generation after generation.
It comes a time when a musical artiste must begin to care about the substance of his music—and consider how long his words will remain relevant, un-caused by dirty industry tricks or aggressive promotion. After all, music has longer life span than the human behind it—if indeed music has a soul, then we are looking at the true value of the soul.
A music legend whose songs have remained relevant despite his absence and the fast changing phase of society is Bob Marley—and this has been greatly possible because of the substance of his songs; the words, the direction and the touch. Let’s get this right; Reggae as a genre is not popular because of where it comes from or the voices, but because of the lyrical substance…
To me, every musician is capable of staying relevant during his life time—and therefore, the test for the true legacy of an artiste’s comes from the impact and relevance of his words, long after his departure or when he is unable to exert undue influence. And to achieve this, the artiste must evolve; conscious efforts must be made to give longevity to the words of his songs.
