WHAT IS MUSIC?
What comes to mind whenever the word “Music” is being mentioned? Does it literarily mean the collection of sound melodies in such an appealing entertaining manner or is it a form of artistic expression which relevance transcends pleasures and leisure significance? Andrew Kania in The Philosophy of Music (2007) speaks to the complexities revolving around the conceptualization of this phenomenon when he mentioned that “music plays a central role in many people’s lives. Music is perhaps the art that presents the most philosophical puzzles. The question of what exactly the work is is initially more puzzling than the question about works of painting.” Obviously, no definition has been able to capture what music has come to stand for in the diverse human experiences. Hence, it means to different people different things.
The American Heritage Dictionary (Second Edition) opines that music is “the art of organizing tones in a coherent sequence so as to produce a unified and continuous composition” In the same vein, The Concise Oxford Dictionary views music as “the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty or form harmony and expression of emotion.” From these definitions, music is established as a form of art produced in organized and calculated patterns. Music is not the production of incoherent or inarticulate sound that is called “noise,” neither is it a form of aesthetic expression that is haphazardly put together; but a type of art governed by conventional principles which informs its appealing and attractive arrangements. Marcel Cobussen hinted in his online article: Thinking Sounds that music “is a complex amalgam of melody, harmony, timbre and silence in a particular structure.” The four basic elements of music which are pitch, rhythm, dynamics and timbre are usually the basic traits that distinguish it from other forms of human verbal expressions. Elliot Schwartz, as quoted in Definition of Music justifies this by asserting that “music is the organization of sound and time”
Nevertheless, beyond the denotative meaning of music, Jules Debussy, quoted in Edward Dents, Mozart’s Operas (1913) mentioned that “music is the art of thinking with sounds” Debussy’s explication maintains that music is a vehicle for conveying rational reflections about social sensibilities and political realities. Kristian David Olson quoted by Andrew M and Oak Lawn in their “Effect of Music on the Society” warns that to deny music this extreme usefulness “is a waste of a truly wonderful resource” Similarly, in Merriam’s The Anthropology of Music, Anon is cited to justify this perception of music when he stated that music is a “complex of activities, ideas and objects that are patterned into culturally meaning sounds recognized to exist on a level different from secular communication.” Music remains therefore an instrument of self-expression, socio-political criticism, education, weapon of influence and determination.
MUSIC AS A MEANS OF ENTERTAINMENT
Music is a form of expression that is capable of appealing to ones’ emotion to invoke feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. As stated on the Reverse Spins Website: “simply listening to music in the background while doing an arduous task can make work seem much easier, or in some areas […] ease the strain of an activity” This implies that music provides an escape route from physical and emotional burden and also serves as palliative to stress and pain. Men across different cultures, religions, times and dispositions have always find solace in music as a form of relaxation and entertainment. Just as Jean Paul proposed in his Titan (1800: 03) “music is the moonlight in the gloomy night.” Men turn to music when depressed and disturbed for life, strength and vitality.
Moreover, Samuel Johnson, quoted in Hawkins’ Johnsoniana (1787) opines that it “is the only sensual pleasure without vice” Larry Austin agrees with Samuel Johnson’s idea of music appeal to sensuality by stating that music is “wanted sound”. In A General History of Music (1776: 89) Charles Burney captures the idea of music entertaining relevance thus:
Music is an innocent luxury, unnecessary indeed to our existence, but great improvement and gratification of the sense of hearing. It consists, at present, of MELODY, TIME, CONSONANCE and DISSONANCE.
Overtly, the relevance of music as a means of entertainment is a fact that we can neither overstretch nor dispute.
MUSIC AS A MEANS OF EDUCATION
Another overwhelming significance of music is its didactic significance. Music can serve as a form of resourceful verbal corpus where the history, social realities, belief system, worldview, cultural values of a people are not just documented but also preserved. With the music of a particular race, it is easy to relate with what such group of people thinks about themselves, their value system, cultural peculiarities and political specificities.
In Bettina von Armin’s Letter to Goethe (1810), Ludwig van Beethoven is quoted to have mentioned that “music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.” Piotor Tehaikovsky in Holden’s Biography (pp 158-159) also has this to say:
Music is not deception, but revelation. Its unique power is to reveal to us elements of beauty which are not accessible by other means, the contemplation of which reconciles us to our lives not just for the moment but forever.
With the availability of musical materials passed down from one generation to another, it is easy to relate with the antiquated past and grasp the basic complexities that shape the various aspect of human history across various centuries. This is why Arthur Honegger in I am a Composer (1951) says music is the “geometry in time” W. H. Auden (1972) also adds that “music is the best means we have in digesting time.” These views contend for the fact that music has a way of chronicling every minute detail of the social events of human development. Therefore, turning to music is turning to a very resourceful institution in understanding different times, people and cultures.
Andrew M and Oak Lawn in their Effect of Music on Society submit:
The fact is music is a driving force in society; it has been present since the dawn of man… it is not surprising then that music has a great effect on how human think and act, possibly even affecting intelligence. It has been widely observed that children, teens and even babies potentially benefit from listening to music, as music can be stimulant to intellectual and cognitive development.
MUSIC AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CRITICISM
Fredrick Delius, cited in Fenby’s Delius as I Knew Him, (1936) raises this very important question:
How can music ever be a mere intellectual speculation or a series of curious combinations of sound that can be classified like the articles of a grocer’s shop? Music is the outburst of the soul.
Here, Delius argues against the established polemics which stereotypes music as a mere instrument of emotional expression and display of calculated and organized production of didactic materials. Music sometimes does not subscribe to the established intellectual cannons of entertainment or education but may also become a strong weapon of outburst of feelings. Musicians from the dawn of time have mastered the art of manipulating music as a tool for social analysis, political evaluation, religious criticism, cultural interpretations etc. Nigeria, for example, has seen such outspoken critics like Fela ‘Anikulapo’ Kuti and Lagbaja who uses their songs as paraphernalia of socio-political advocacy. Just the same way literary critics are guided by various intellectual theories in interpreting the society, musicians appropriate their musical talents in addressing socio-political sensibilities. No wonder Aldus Huxley in Music at Night believes that “after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
On music being a veritable tool for sociopolitical analysis, the Wikipededia (an online source) section of Music and Politics has this to add:
The connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in songs has been seen in many cultures… Music can be used to portray a specific political message. However there may be barriers to the transmission of such messages; even overtly political songs are often shaped by and reference their contemporary political context, making an understanding of the history and events that inspired the music necessary in order to fully comprehend the message.
(www.wekipedia.com/musicandpolitics)
The argument is that artists draw their inspiration and thematic concerns from their various sociopolitical realities of their immediate environments and sometimes use songs as the weapon to express their views, criticize certain ills, correct or proffer solutions to the challenges that may mar a shared or collective experience of a people within a given spatio-temporal setting. Certain works like Woody’s This Land is Your Land, Pete Seeger’’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Phil Ochs’ There but for Fortune, Fela Anikulapo’s Vagabonds in Power, Lucky Dube’s House of Exile and host of others by several musicians across the globe and through the pages of history have been technically referred to by scholars as political songs. The same thing Soyinka will do with his Ake and Kole Omotosho will do with Just before Dawn is what musicians will do with their songs.
TYPES OF MUSIC
Music comes in different forms and styles ranging from traditional rock music to world pop, to classical music to jazz and inspirational songs. Many of these genres have a rich socio-cultural history from which they emanate or develop. For example, Blues and Hip Hop are usually traced to African Americans of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
BLUES
According to the Oxford Dictionary, Blues is “a musical form of African American origin, generally featuring an eight bar or twelve bar structure and using the blues scale’ open to endless improvisation both lyrical and musical. After the Civil War, the Blues emerges as a distillate of African music brought by the slaves. Field hollers, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called Jump-Ups evolved into music for a singer who would engage in call-and-response with the guitar to answer it. (Wikipedia) By 1910, the word “Blues” as applied to a musical tradition has become in fairly common use. The various strands of Blues are:
Acoustic Blues
Chicago Blues
Classic Blues
Delta Blues
Electric Blues
Ragtime Blues
Children’s Music
This is a genre of music that is targeted towards the interest of the young ones usually kids and teens in the society. This strand of music seeks to capture the peculiarity of the developing stage of human experience in appealing and attractive ways. It has not only yielded financial profit to children artists overtime, it has arguably also become one of the most influential weapon waded in shaping and determining the worldviews and moral dispositions of children in their formative years. In every culture across all ages, certain songs are peculiar to children occurring in several contexts (like when they are playing, working, etc).
The 21st century has also seen an increase in the number of independent Children’s music artists with acts like The Dirty Sock Fortune Band, Dan Zanies, Parachute Express, Cathy Bollinger and Laurie Berkner getting wide exposure on cable TV channels targeted at kids in the United States (www.wikepedia.com/childrensmusic). All over the world, concerted effort is being made towards entertaining and educating children through music. These songs are usually characteristically simple and easy to comprehend. In fact, in Africa, important information about cultural or social believes are often codified in songs so as to aid easy memorization and comprehension. The various types of children music include lullabies, simple chorus, sing along, and stories (wikipedia)
Classical Music
The term classical music is initially used as a means of canonizing the specific musical strand that rises in the Classical Period (1750 - 1820) in the Western world where the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart graced the world of music with their wonderful artistry skills.
The Oxford Concise Dictionary (2007) holds that “classical music is a form of art music produced or rooted in the tradition of the Western music including both liturgical (religious) and secular music.” Michael Kennedy in his Dictionary of Music (2006: 178) enlightens further:
Given the wide range of style in classical music, from medieval plainchant sung by monks to Classical and Romantic symphonies for orchestra from the 1700s and 18000s to avant-garde atonal compositions for solo piano from the 1900s, it is difficult to list the characteristics that can be attributed to all works of that type. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains that few or no other genres of music contain, such as the use of a printed score and the performance of the very complex instrumental works.
Classical Music is a general term applied to the following forms of musical expressions: Avant-garde, Baroque, Chamber Music, Classical Crossover, Choral, Impressionist, Minimalism, Modern Composition, Opera, Orchestral, etc (Wikipedia)
Notable artists that stand out in the history of classical music include: Antonio Vivaldi, Johan Sebastian Back, George Frederic Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Gioachina Rossini, Felix Mendelssohn Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner, Edwards Elgar, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss etc.
Country Music
Richard Peterson (1999: 9) observes that country music as a musical genre originates in the southern and western parts of the United States in the 1920s. It often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies characterized by mostly string instruments such as fiddles, banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, as well as harmonicas (English Dictionary)
Artists who will forever remain relevant as far as this genre of music is concern include names like Don Williams, Lonny Popes, Jim Reeves, Dolly Parton, Jimmie Rodgers, John Carson, Vernon Dalhart, Don Richardson, Dave Wacon, Ernest V. Stoneman, Roy Acuff, Roy Rogers, Charlie Monroe, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash.
The various types of country music are: Americana, Bluegrass, Contemporary Bluegrass, Contemporary Country, Country Gospel, Honky Tonk, Outlaw Country, Traditional Bluegrass, Traditional Country, Urban Cowboy and Alternative Country (Wikipedia).
Hip Hop
Rose (1994: 21) as quoted in Maduabuchi Agbo’s Language Alternation Strategies in Nigeria Hip Hop and Rap Texts offers this definition of Hip Hop:
Hip Hop is a cultural form that attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization, brutally truncated opportunity, and oppression within the cultural imperatives of African-American and Caribbean history, identity, and community. It is the tension between cultural fractures produced by postindustrial oppression and the binding ties of black cultural expressivity that set the critical frame for the development of Hip Hop.
Similarly, Robert Thompson in William Eric’s Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (1996: 213) lectures that ”Hip Hop is a sub-cultural art movement that was formed during the early 1970s, primarily by African-American youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City”
Hip Hop music becomes popular outside the African-American community of the United States in the late 1980s. This musical genre is characterized by four distinct elements as different manifestation of the norms and culture, namely: oral art, turntablism or aura art, physical or visual art and knowledge (Jeff and Herc 2005, Grant 2009, Ziegler 2005).
However, this musical tradition has spread across the world with each country localizing its forms and styles to its cultural and social context. Hip Hop music is arguably one of the most popular genres of music with youths across the globe.
Hip Hop can be in form of Alternative Rap, Bounce, Gangsta Rap, Latin Rap, Old School Rap etc. Artists of global fame of this musical tradition in the contemporary world are 50 Cent, Eminem, Jay Z, Akon, T-Pain, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas among others.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page I-II
Certification III
Dedication IV
Acknowledgements V
Abstract VI
Table of Contents VII-XI
Music, Literature and Society 1-4
CHAPTER TWO
SECTION ONE
Music as A Means of Entertainment 16
Music as A Means of Education 17
Music as an Instrument of Socio-Political Criticism 18-19
SECTION TWO
SECTION THREE
CHAPTER THREE: THE THEMATIC APPRAISAL OF 9ICE’S AND ASA’S SONGS
A Critical Appraisal Of 9ice’s Musical Style 32-34
PETEPETE
Post-Colonial Disillusionment 35-36
Social Recklessness and Its Effects 37-38
THERE IS FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
Political Instability and Insecurity 43-45
Cultural and Moral Decadence 47-48
IYA NI
Sociopolitical Servitude 51-52
CHAPTER FOUR: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LAGBAJA’S SONGS
An Appraisal of Lagbaja Musical Style 53-54
The Roles of the Citizens in a System of Corruption 55-57
Relevance of His Masked Tradition 57-58
Criticism of the Social Culture of Scapegoatism 58-60
Restoration of Moral Values as the Way Forward 60-61
200 MILLION MUMU (PART THREE)
Political Avariciousness 62-63
CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusion 69-70
Recommendations 71
Works Cited 71-74
Appendices 75-83WORKS CITED
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