Has music lost its soul?

It seems many artists have moved away from making music with a message to just endorsing a fake lavish lifestyle. Today, music needs videos for you to get the story and the messages are mostly about money, cars and five-star living. Frankly, the champagne living and swag dripping is long played out, especially for musicians who do not have it. It's upsetting that artists are more concerned with creating a buzz than creating a legacy. This is evident in the choice of songs they choose to shoot music videos for. An artist could have a touching and encouraging song on their album but there is always a chance that such a song won't be given the attention it deserves. It is for this reason I applaud Lioness and Top Cheri for promoting Meme and Calling Heaven last year as singles. Those moves for me proved that they are not caught up in materialism and have indeed created a legacy for themselves. Music is a meaningful form of expression which is supposed to address issues of social concern. There is a lot of things going on that are worthy of being spoken about, but artists would rather write songs screaming that they have the best outfit or they have the best woman or man, whatever the case maybe. Musicians would rather make songs about sex instead of addressing relevant issues. I'm no hater whatsoever; I support talent when I feel it's worth the support. I understand that some genres of music are about bragging and all that, but don't just jump on a beat and start screaming 'money' without saying anything relevant. 'Drip', as the young ones like to refer to it, is the death of our music culture. It has brought nothing but weak lines. Music plays a very important role in people's lives, you can even say that it can mould your life. People's behaviour is dependent upon the type of music they hear. What behaviour do we expect young people to have if they are always exposed to music that promotes materialism? Yes, we need music to party to, but there needs to be balance. There are more party songs than tracks with meaning that are uplifting, and that needs to change. To the gatekeepers of the music space, it is high time we prioritise songs that are uplifting. It has become boring to listen to radio because certain radio slots that are supposed to play mellow music fill their time with up-tempo music. Why are you playing high-tempo music on a Sunday morning on radio, bro? michael@namibiansun.com; @MichaelMKAY on twitter

Has music lost its soul?

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Has music lost its soul?

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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