Etcetera was not pleased at all with the music being produced in Nigeria at the moment and you need to read his strong words about it as he even goes as far as to say that the music is not pleasing unto GOD!
"This is simply today’s Nigerian music! Something is terribly WRONG with it! Yet millions around the country – especially the young people – listen to it by the hour. WHY?
What is there about this music that is so gripping? How can something so meaningless hold millions under its spell? Why does it serve as a common denominator – as “the tie that binds” – for so many youths?
Judging from how and what they’re saying and singing, it is easy to conclude that some of these artistes should be taken for mental evaluation! Music mirrors our emotions; it reflects our thoughts; it echoes our activities – it shows us the way we really ARE!
Most Nigerian artistes are confused and bewildered – or they wouldn’t sing songs about not being able to tell right from wrong, or songs which purposely don’t say or mean anything, or which try only to “embody an emotional state that points indirectly to marijuana and crazy s*x positions.”
Music – just like other forms of art – is like a social barometer. A strong and healthy society produces dynamic and stimulating music; a diseased and decaying society produces sick and decadent music.It’s a simple matter of cause and effect!
This is now a SICK SOCIETY and, therefore, it produces SICK MUSIC. It’s just that simple! Both parents and the young people are to blame. My point is, we all don’t have to be a part of this sick society – or its sick music.
Even talking about today’s gospel songs, many are lacking in purpose and quality. The gospel singers are forgetting that God believes in QUALITY. Look at the universe He created! He also believes in human improvement and GROWTH. “Become ye therefore perfect” (Matt. 5:48) and “Grow in grace and knowledge” (II Pet. 3:18), He commands.
God wants His people to grow in the right kind of culture – the right kind of appreciation for the finer things in life. He says that mature Christians are “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to DISCERN both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14).
God wants us to EXERCISE our five physical senses. He wants us to learn what the true values for the enjoyment of the senses are. One of these senses is hearing. And one of the ways we need to exercise our hearing sense is in the appreciation of quality music. Quality in music involves, first of all, the way it is composed or arranged. Secondly, it involves how the music is performed. And thirdly, the setting (the place and occasion) in which the music is heard.
A mother justifies her daughter who’s listening to an obscene song by saying, “If you listen to the words of that one, it’s pretty rough. But it has a real good beat. My daughter says she doesn’t pay any attention to the words anyway.” Are we really that naïve? What erroneous reasoning! Go along with the crowd – even if the crowd is on the way to suffering, misery, pain, extinction? Do we think that these songs have no part in the tidal wave of promiscuity, venereal disease, illegitimate babies that are all over the country today? If you are one of those who like today’s Naija music, you ought to honestly and truthfully ask yourself WHY."
As strong as this opinionated man's words are I dare to ask the question, is there not some truth hidden in them? Someone tried to justify their opposing views to this by saying that it's not that big of a deal as the music simply lets people have fun, but in as much as this also is true, where is the line to be drawn? Yes, the beats in the music are amazing and quite fun but shouldn't we try to be slightly selective with regards to the words that we feed our souls? We're all guilty of it from time to time, yes, but perhaps we should let the words in the songs we choose to listen to the most build and impact us positively.
'Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers'- Ephesians 4:29 (KJV)
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