THE PSQUARE AND SEUN MUSIC BRANDS ARE MUSICIANS

 

Psquare and Seun Kuti

The mantra of, "Change is the only constant thing," applies to music too.

Music has evolved.

There have been debates about whether the voice can be considered to be a musical instrument and it has been discovered via the classical and jazz genres of music that THE VOICE IS ALSO A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

A professional singer and songwriter needs to understand music theory, tempo, melody, pitch, key, etc just like a person who plays the drums or violin or flute.

Having a knowledge of music theory is not even necessary as long as other factors are present.

That PSquare does not play musical instruments on stage does mean that they cannot play musical instruments.

Paul plays the guitar and composes most of their songs for studio recording.

Peter does more of the singing and creates their dance steps.

The R&B, hip-hop and Afrobeat genres (not Fela's genre) do not require the playing of live musical instruments.

Digital beats are enough.

Disc jockey mixes are enough.

However, where necessary for studio recordings, live musical instruments are performed like in some of PSquare songs and songs produced or supervised by Don Jazzy and produced by Tekno, who is also a music producer.

Even Dbanj plays the harmonica which is a musical instrument.

By the way, all music producers must know how to play the keyboard/piano otherwise, they will not be able to create beats and add other pre-recorded musical instruments via the keyboard keys.

Paul and Peter are music producers.

Music is about WANTS and NEEDS.

People want what they want.

Nigerians WANT what they WANT.

If you do a music concert in Nigeria and even all over the world and sell tickets to those who love hip-hop and afrobeat, they will buy tickets to watch PSquare perform.

If you do a free concert in Nigeria and invite Seun Kuti to come and perform for free, the audience nor go plenty o!

However, Ṣeun will get a lot of foreign audience too.

People need what they need.

Nigerians NEED Ṣeun Kuti's kind of music but they will not invite him for shows because they do not WANT his style of music.

Besides, they do not KNOW him except for his rants on social media and that he is Fela's son.

He does not promote his songs in Nigeria like Fela did and Femi does.

At least, start your talent from your locality before going international.

Ṣeun easily got noticed by Grammy because of his father's pedigree.

If PSquare's father too had been a musician, the duo could also have the same advantage.

As a DJ, I have never been asked to play Seun Kuti's songs but I get requests to play Fela and Femi Kuti's songs.

Ṣeun sings about the ills of Nigerian politicians but he has to go abroad to sing it.

Is that how his father and Femi did it?

Sing it from here! Let those whom you are singing about and the victims that you think you are fighting for hear you even before the world hears you!

If it is not hypocricy, I do not know what it is.

Their genres of music are different.

Ṣeun sings conscious music in the original Afrobeat genre.

PSquare sings love songs and feel-good music in R&B, Hip-hop and Afrobeat genres.

Their genres are incomparable.

Both styles of music have their place in the world of musicianship and performance.

It is like comparing classical music with Fuji music.

In conclusion, both PSquare and Seun Kuti are musicians and none is better than the other.

Musically yours,

DJ Irawo