Local music videos

I’m one of those people who love music and dancing. So watching music videos is something I enjoy.

Or should I say, used to enjoy. You see, these days, watching Ghanaian music videos is becoming unbecoming! Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that music has given so many young people a voice. And an opportunity to use their God-given talent to feed themselves.

It’s wonderful that parents now accept their child may not be a lawyer, doctor or engineer after all! O yes, it’s great that our youth are gainfully employed, making music which we all enjoy.

However, what I really don’t like is the way our music videos are looking. Look, if you turn the volume down, you can be forgiven for thinking you are watching a poor American hip hop video. Just like the videos coming from the West, it seems Ghanaian artistes have now also jumped on the “sex sells” bandwagon.

I appreciate that every country has their own style of dance. For some, it’s in the shoulders, for others, it’s in the movement of the neck. Here in Ghana, it looks like a dancer’s prowess is determined by the waist and backside. I appreciate that. Hell, I’ve been known to shake my thing in the past. It’s just that I think our music video makers are either losing creativity, or are just deciding to blindly copy what is coming out of America so they can “be with the times” and have an “international” appeal.

These days, all the music videos are beginning to look the same. I tell you, I seriously cannot tell one artiste from the other. As for the one way sound, well, what can I say? Anyway, back to the music video and I often wonder why we no longer tell stories? Why can’t we see some drama or something other than waist shaking going on? Lately, we don’t even see the faces of the female dancers. It’s all about the waist and backside.

Just like their American hip hop / rap counterparts, our Ghanaian artistes are producing videos which promote the champagne lifestyle and the fast and promiscuous life. It makes me laugh, really hard, I tell you, to see some Nima boy who has recorded one or two songs suddenly do a video where he is a “don dada”.

You know, he’s all “bling bling”; he’s coming out of a limo; sipping champagne; he’s with a multitude of sexy girls who desire him with so much passion; he’s tossing dollars in the air, on the girls; he’s smoking his cigar…. Hello. If the American stars are doing this, it’s because that is their reality. Believe me, Snoop, Jay Z and the likes actually do live the champagne lifestyle.

They don’t just hire limos etc for a video shoot and then go back to their life in a little room in a family compound house or ghetto. So you see, in as much as I don’t like the American music videos, I can at least say, it is the reality for those making it. I doubt it is the reality for many of our local artistes.

Aside from that, I don’t like the idea that every music video has to feature people’s backside. Like I said, these days, we don’t even see the faces of the female dancers. I mean have you seen KK Fosu’s and Nana Quame’s new video?

Um .I refuse to believe these girls cannot dance using their feet, hands, heads, every other part of their body other than their backsides. It simply cannot be true.

Recently, I went to visit a friend only to meet her children watching a porn video. I was disgusted and shocked and asked them to turn it off immediately. “But aunty, it’s only a music video”. To say I was stunned was an understatement. I sat down with them to make sure they were telling the truth, and lo and behold, it was indeed a music video, by a young female singer. Eh is this Ghana I asked myself?

Maybe I’m just becoming old fashioned as I (gracefully) age, but I’m very disappointed with the folks producing these videos. I remember the days when music videos were about telling stories. Watching music videos was like watching short films.

So from the beginning of the video to the end, there was something interesting going on which one could follow. I mean, if we have to emulate the Americans, then why not look at videos like “Summertime” by Will Smith? That is a music video. These days? All we see is 3 minutes of backsides. I wouldn’t even mind of these backside shots were interlaced with other scenes.

But what do we have? Backsides dancing in the studio, backsides dancing to the faces of the artistes, backsides dancing in a nightclub. It’s all the same and one way. It’s monotonous, uncreative and some would say, demeaning to women!

Don’t get me wrong. I strongly advocate freedom of expression. I believe in a woman’s right to dress and dance in style she chooses. And I appreciate artistes creativity. I guess that’s why I’m so disappointed in the current style of video making.

Because in reality, these modern videos are not creative in the least. They are just imitations of what is coming out of mostly America. I’m not saying we should go tribal and shoot all our videos with spears and dancing Africans. No no no. But we can do a lot more than show 3 minutes of women’s backsides. Surely

As you’ve noticed, I’ve only focused on the videos by our young hiplife stars. That’s because most of the other videos tend to be those by the gospel artistes.

I tell you, they may not be showing backsides, but in terms of production values and quality, they are a lot worse than those by the hiplife artistes. In fact, they are so awful, I really don’t want to waste ink on it. Which brings me neatly back to the videos by the hiplife artistes, the modern videos which are all about selling the fast life.

I guess with our artiste having access to international TV networks and event organizers, they don’t want to be left out of the game.

The world is fast becoming a “global village” and it seems if you want to survive, you have to be Americanized! (Why they call it a “global village”, I will never understand because what I see is “Americanization” of the rest of the world. But hey, that is a whole new subject.)

In as much as our artistes want to make it on the international scene, I think it would be wonderful if they remained true to themselves. And they can start by producing music videos which do more than show ladies backsides.

But then, maybe I’m just kidding myself. After all, this is a world in which the likes of Beyonce are given much more credit and attention than the likes of India Arie O and before I go, video makers, if you really insist on sticking to this style of production, I can tell you how to save time, money and energy. By now, I’m sure you have more footage of shaking and wining backsides than you know what to do with. Well, this is my advice, don’t hire any more dancers. Just get all the artistes you work with, to mime to any backdrop and edit that with any of your existing footage of backsides. Because believe me, it doesn’t matter who the artiste is, all your videos are beginning to look the same anyway! And that’s a shame because some of our artistes are making good music. It’s just the videos letting them down.

But hey, these are just the reflections of an ordinary Ghanaian woman.