Societal Realities in Contemporary Nigerian Popular Music
Music is a product of the society and the society is a product of its music. The human experience, activity, creativity and ingenuity produce music and as music produced gets to the society, it influences the activities and thought process in the society. The cyclic nature of society-music, and music-society moves in continuum as society’s influence is evident in music and vice versa. To this end, societal realities are evident in thematic structures of music composition, performance and production. Hence, this study critically examines the societal realities in contemporary Nigerian popular music. The Structural functionalism theory foregrounds this study. This study adopts the content analysis and deductive methods of research, audio and video tape materials in the contemporary Nigerian popular music space were used for deductions and analyses based on their thematic content and structure. This study argues that contemporary Nigerian popular music portray the realities in our contemporary society to a large extent as the society inspired its production and this music subsequently goes on to influence the people (society) with its content, especially the youths. This study encourages the use of the contemporary popular music as a tool for fostering national development, mass education and cohesion rather than embracing promotion of social immoralities and disintegration.
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