Several times I have had to edit and re-edit my playlist because many of the songs of today have no reality and realism. The vocabulary is narrow and the message does not sink to my bone marrow for the songs are all shallow. Am not playing under the shadow of all these hot songs or the debate what school of music is the realest or which is fake. Singers of today follow a script; it’s like they are following a cord and once it’s broken then the artist is left with nothing but to look for fillers to complete the message. That’s when the ides or techno steps in where it’s 30% lyrics and rest instrumental. It’s not that I hate it anyway because the inventors have shallow mouths and deep brains any way.
Personally growing up I grew listening to kadongo kamu (Uganda’s version of country music) the genre back then was cool in that you couldn’t write or record your songs and lyrics instead you had to record and sing it aloud to everyone since you used your listeners brains as tape recorders. The quality was blurred and low but the message was loud and clear and talk of instrumentation is deviated because kids of today are blessed with all these sweet electronic instruments can’t come close greats of long ago with their one guitar string themes
Then 90s underground hip hop comes close to this realism and actuality I look for in a song basically because it has its roots deep in free styling and the speaker living the life his talking about. Hence kings were named and shamed on these same rules unlike today where typo ninjas are hiding under the cover of their laptop key boards trying to tell a story with no head or feet. Am told some artists move with their black berries and freestyle lyrics into mics on radio during freestyle sessions
The other genre I am in love with is reggae both roots and lovers rock but more of roots are my favourite choice. May be it’s because I grew up in a turbulent country with so many problems thus am always falling for people who have a lot to speak about. But the message comes off the narrators lips served ice cold with no need for a million dollar video just a few seconds of your listening ear and he will create the picture for you nice and clear in HD if you want.
Lastly the genre where you sing and write latter is jazz blues. The genre breaths and lives off the artist performing on stage with a live band in front of not so pleasant that are screaming for attention and hanging in mood swings. Hence for one to connect with this audience your body language had to speak realism and actuality and the writing was done later when the bar closes and all revellers have gone home.
nare 