Years back when hiplife revolution started, lots of pundits especially those inclined to highlife predicted its demise. However hiplife still remains relevant today and it’s growing at an alarming rate. Though hiplife provided the threshold for diversity in our musical landscape, everyone joined the bandwagon by producing strictly hiplife songs. Even highlife musicians collaborated with artiste before they could make inroads into mainstream.
Now there is a new wave sweeping the corridors of our music arena – Dancehall music. It has caught on like a wild fire and it seems it will take a long time before it will fade away. Some industry players have already expressed worry about this trend, saying it has the potential to collapse our music industry.
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Some DJs have helped to propagate the genre; they will play nothing apart from Dancehall music thereby making the proponent of Dancehall, notably Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy the most sought after musicians of our time.
Zapp Mallet recently expressed the same sentiment about this when he said if the trend persist, it will collapse our industry. “How can Dancehall or Reggae music take over Ghana? This practice has to stop because we are doing ourselves more harm than good. Now if you are a musician and you don’t do reggae or Dancehall, then you can’t make it,” the renowned sound engineer lamented.
It’s true we can’t resist the temptation to jump to this dance floor when Shatta Wale is in his element or Stonebwoy is ‘killing it’, but the sustainability of our indigenous music will be seriously compromised. It will stall the growth of our music industry like Zapp Mallet opined.
Stakeholders and MUSIGHA, as a matter of urgency should do everything possible to reverse the trend. Bisa K. Dei is one talented guy who is doing everything possible to carry on with Highlife.
Another person doing that is Kwabena Kwabena but as to how long they can hold on in the face of the avalanche of Dancehall being churned out on daily bases is anyone’s guess.
