Music speaks to us in many ways and languages, some songs are good for listening to put us in a specific mood, some to teach, others to dance; but for a song to appeal to a listener so much that it registers its own app in your memory data, that is the genius of two very important contributing factors in music….The songwriter and the producer. For example let’s go back two decades ago and remember the late legendary Robert Fumulani (R.I.P), his music was an audio motion picture of real life situations embedded on a musical platform and if you are inclined to music as much as I am you can see and even hear that the legend was writing the song before he knew what the production would sound like. The same applies to Great Britain’s biggest music outfit, the Beatles and even the king of reggae Robert Nesta Marley. What these music legends have in common is that they had a story to tell which would already be scripted in their beautiful minds before entering the studio to record, meaning it was now the magic of the session artists and producer to craft a sound that would complement these stories, meaning the song was driven by the artist. Now in the modern age of computers and music production software the artist somehow has become lazy and almost irrelevant because the producer with his/her creativity makes a beat without any idea of what will be said on it and offers it to the artist to complete the project. The artist now has to script a song that will portray the mood of the production, meaning the song is now driven by the producer. Just take a listen to a number of your favorite artists of today and you’ll figure out exactly what am talking about, you’ll hear the same topic from too many artists such as “I love you, you are the only one” or “you’re the apple of my eye” or “Iwe chikondi chako etc” that is because the producer provided a love mood to the production which the artist is just complimenting with his/her lyrics. Its quite interesting if we go deeper and realize that some producers can only make “love mood” music, so an album is full of love songs from track one to sixteen. We just hope artists could be more creative and emulate the likes of the pioneers and legends of late Robert Fumulani, late States Samangaya of Police Ochestra, Ben Mankhamba, Wambali Mkandawire, Lucius Banda and actually script a song from the heart than rely on a producer to dictate what he/she says on a song.
Enjoy the Video below.
All the best,
Billy Blanco
Hip hop producer vs. Wanna be artist ( BYRDISIMO )
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