The last couple of years has seen an astronomical rise in the consumption of afrobeat music beyond its local market and shores. Shows have been headlined by notable Nigerian artists, festivals in their huge numbers have become a routine for afrobeat consumption, high-end clubs and bars have made afrobeat songs the primary composition of their playlists, local artistes like Burna Boy, Rema, Wizkid, Davido etc keep selling out historic arenas, hosting thousands of spectators, fans and just people wanting a taste of the west African magic. This rise did not happen overnight; a lot of factors contributed to this immense success. The foundation had been laid by pioneering artists like Fela, Sunny Ade etc who had introduced this unique sound to the world beyond their shores. It would take another 30+ years for the profit of their labor to start being obvious. Nigerians, generally considered a very lousy bunch, celebrated this feats and it came with massive adoration for the local artists that kept putting the image of the country out there in a good light. Awards like the notable Grammies became a household achievement, albums getting gold, silver, platinum certified became so normalized that we almost do not consider them a great feat anymore. This sense of achievement meant so much in terms of pedigree and also revenue for the artists and their respective managements who now were able to harness the benefits of access to a wider market.
Amidst the excitement, a deep underlying issues is access and how to deal with the newly acquired fame. Local fans are finding it increasingly difficult to access artists that used to be accessible to them to a very large extent. This is because of a couple reason. Firstly, these artists are now used to foreign shows and performances that are denominated in currencies that are a lot more profitable to the artists than what they used to receive in the local scene. Hence, the concentrate more effort, time, energy and PR to attracting the dollar and pounds sterling spenders. From a business point of view, this is very good for both artists and also their management who spend so much in terms of investing in their arts. This is in forms of research and development, recording with some of the most sort after recording houses, hiring top producers and sound engineers and also spending a fortune on marketing the artists to these sort of audiences. Also, this is also propelled by just the proximity to Eurocentric audiences that are a very big factor in career progression. What this means is that there are very high chances that an artist would be nominated for more awards, would be called to more shows as long as they appear to be very tightly knitted to the foreign space.
For the local fans, it is hard to come to a good conclusion that artists they helped propel their career trajectory are now suddenly out of their poor reach. These are artists they have created parasocial relationships with. Shows that used to be cheap and accessible are now overly expensive and sometimes even denominated in currencies that are not local. In many instances, organizers of shows have complained about the bottlenecks that they have to engage in trying to secure the presence of a top act. This renewed popularity has come at a huge cost for the local fan base. For the artists, there is little they can do because many of them already tradeoff a lot of their personal decisions as regards their art and its consumption to multinational record labels in return for the very profitable foreign exposure they enjoy. The labels also want to make a profit off their investments; hence it is difficult to stoop lower than what is acceptable financially. For the local fans, it is a feeling of betrayal, that they have been used as ladders to the top echelons of their careers only to be dumped after. The dicey debate continues with no solution in view. What do you think?
