Who Is Responsible For The Change Of Trend In The Music Industry. ARTIST OR MUSIC PRODUCER
Lets Use the Nigerian music industry as a case study. The Nigerian music industry has evolved over the years with different hit songs emanating and emerging from different music artist. The industry has experienced a drastic change in both structure and exposure as a result of quality sounds released by Artists. The sounds gets better by day as Artists and their producers think outside the box to create sounds that can actually break into the western world and attract potential investors. As we all hear and see on news and social platforms how Nigerian /African Artist are been offered deals by foreign Music bodies like Sony music, RCA, ROC Nation and Universal Music. This is a clear proof of growth in the Music Industry. Now the question is, who is actually responsible for change in sound /trend in the music industry.
Who is a music producer? - A producer Is an individual responsible for managing the recording session, the mixing and mastering of new song from an artist. The music producer has a clearer understanding of the vision of sound he is working on even more than the artist, he directs the recording creative process. In the Nigerian music industry a Producer is often seen as a beat maker, because he creates the beat and the artist jumps on it, he then sends the beat to a sound Engineer who handles the final mixing and mastering of the song. But a sound Engineer from my own perspective is that individual that has a clearer understanding of the music industry and change in trends and also has a vision to change the sound /trend by introducing a unique sound or style of production which is in turn regarded as a wave the Artist who is lucky to connect to it seats on. If it eventually becomes a hit, every other Artist follows (normal culture in the industry) by creating similar sounds just to fit in and queue into the DJ's playlist.
Who is a Music Artist? - The music Artist is that individual who has passion for the art, who is also responsible for composing and recording a song under the supervision and direction of the music producer. Every good artist you see or hear today, grew their artistry by listening to advise and direction from a music producer. In this part of the world, an artist can easily work into a studio and tell a producer or a beat maker as they are known here, to play him sample of beats in his archive, after listening to couple of beats, he eventually falls in love with one and baaaaaaaaam!!! he jumps on it. The Nigerian music industry actually has few artist that really create music, Artists like Tuface Idibia, Timi Dakolo, Cohbams, Darey, Waje, Asa and others. Aside being talented and creative when it comes to song writing they still need the help of a music producer to create the sound and direct the creative recording process. So you can see producers are major key players when it comes to the growth and setting the trend of a music or should i say shaping the sound of a music industry.
If we want to look extensively into the People that actually contributes towards shaping or creating the direction for the sound in the music industry, the list will be incomplete without the mention of the Talent Managers, A&R and Songwriters . The talent manager is that individual that guides the vision of the artist and also has a clear knowledge of the music industry and understands the artist's sound, there by capitalizing on it to position the artist strategically in the music industry. On the other hand the A&R is an individual or a division of the record label that is in charge of talent scouting. An A&R understands music and works as a liaison between labels and Artists, the A&R understands the Artist's sound and links he/she up with a perfect producer with similar vision. Finally the song writer is an individual or group of people that composes and puts together the lyrics of a song for an artist. Every artist normally has a song writer that understands their kind of music and follows the direction when writing. Like on the other side we have people called The Power House Song writers and production, this group of people or production team are responsible for writing and composing songs for pop artist like Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Ketty Perry. This individual understands the clients targeted audience and market, so they compose songs with such demands.
The credit for the evolution and growth of music in Nigeria should be given to the producers who have worked tirelessly towards creating the sound we all enjoy today. The artist is nothing without a good and creative producer.
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