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SCREENED MUSIC IN A GLOBALISED WORLD: ITS 

IMPLICATIONS ON POP MUSICAL ARTS IN NIGERIA 

 

Sunday-Kanu, Rita Adaobi 

Department of Music University of Port Harcourt. 

   Email: rita.sunday-kanu@uniport.edu.ng 

                      Or 

                                  nwakwesilirita@yahoo.com 

Phone number:    +234 (0) 8134997014 

 

 

Abstract 

Screened music has become the order of the day in the developed, 

developing and even underdeveloped countries of the world. This has 

constituted some level of acculturated musical arts in different 

nations including Africa. This dispensation of high technological 

revolution and its invention of internet have left mixed cultural 

musical arts as the trend of 21st century.  It has consequently, 

resulted to the borrowing, and adoption of other world musical arts. 

This have recently dominated the African musical arts and its 

expression. This study investigated the height and influence of 

screened music on the Nigerian pop music scene, its application and 

implication to Nigerian pop musical arts. However, findings proved 

that this trend has resulted to multi-cultural musical art form that is 

noticeably in Nigerian pop music scene. The related arts such as; 

texts, phonetics, dance steps, arrangements, settings, paintings, 

rhythmic progressions, styles applied, costumes and drama reflect 

these influences. This development left Nigerian pop stars on the 

verge of being considered neither Nigerian nor Western in their 

musical art forms and expressions. Data collection was drawn from 

historical records, personal observation, oral interviews and review of 

related literature. 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (ARMA) Vol. 10 2014 

 

mailto:rita.sunday-kanu@uniport.edu.ng
mailto:nwakwesilirita@yahoo.com


 
 

148 

 

Introduction  

Music is part of virtually every culture of the world; music showcases 

the identity of a people, their norms, values and believe system. This 

is why music varies widely among cultures in style and structure. The 

music of a people articulates the concepts, principles and their life 

experiences. Therefore, symbolic meanings or visual literacy are 

embodied in art expression and musical instrument involved in the 

music performance of any culture. The texts of the music are 

primarily use to relate experiences, criticise, evaluate opinions, 

thought and formulate of public opinion. Although popular music has 

been perceived as music for the masses which gears toward 

entertainment of the people and commercial purposes, but that does 

not deprive pop music of a people from relating their immediate 

environment and culture for proper acceptance and appreciation in 

their society. Before now, the early popular musicians endeavour to 

portray the socio-cultural integrity of the Nigerian people. As a result 

of global boundary elimination and great consumption of Western 

music and culture via new technology, Nigerian people and their 

musical art expression has been significantly influenced. Nigeria pop 

musical art expression has deviated from being people‟s voice on 

contemporary issues and experiences. Recently, pop musical art 

expression in Nigeria appears too foreign to even society. What 

Nigerians culturally consider immoral and indecent forms the bulk of 

the texts and related art expressions of pop musical art.  

 For instance, projection of nude girls and their sexually aroused 

gestures dominating Nigeria pop scene today does not articulate 

Nigerian ethics and integrity. The pop stars are basically carried away 

by American musical culture which does not in any way integrate 

Nigeria cultural values. Ojakovo (2010:105), expressed that the early 

contemporary popular music like Fuji, Urhobo disco, Highlife, Afro 

beat, Apala, Waka, Juju and Afro juju fused traditional music and the 

Screened Music in a Globalised World…      
 



 
 

149 

Western musical idioms together to satisfy the present Nigerian 

citizens. 

 They were propagating cultures of various ethnic nationalities in 

Nigeria. Okafor (2005:1), opined that music should be cultural 

expressed, determined, moulded, interpreted and addressed or 

colored by the culture and the cultural environment of the people. 

Music is part of creative arts form and therefore, does not go in 

isolation from people‟s perspective of life and experiences. This 

applies to every other form of arts that goes with the music, such as, 

the performance style, cartoons, drama, painting and costume. All 

these turmoil in Nigeria Pop music scene came as a result of screened 

music in this technological era. Screened music in this context is 

referred to musical works that are displayed on the monitor for both 

audio and visual consumption.  This enables musicians to enrich their 

work and seek inspiration from other musicians and composers from 

within and outside their culture. To non musicians the combination of 

other related arts in the music on screen helps them in their 

enjoyment of music, understanding and appreciation of musical work 

beyond mere listening. 

 

 

Nigerian Pop Musical Arts in 21st Century 

Musical art culture and expressions changes over time and age due to 

some factors, such as socio-cultural, economical, political and 

technological revolution. For instance, the 21st century pop music 

performance styles, production, dissemination and consumption in 

Nigeria, have received great influence from globalization, late 

modernism, technological revolution and general global socio-cultural 

restructuring. These have lately, altered and interfered with pop 

musical art form in Nigeria.  Thereby, making it difficult to come in 

contact with unadulterated or unmodified art musical form and 

identity as portrayed in Nigerian popular music culture.  Hence, cross 

fertilization of musical arts was boosted up by the advancement of 

Sunday-Kanu, Rita Adaobi 



 
 

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information technology, resulting to mix socio-cultural phenomenon 

which have constructed a new framework of art expression in the 

Nigerian pop musical arts practices. 

Drawing from historical account, this influence became wildly 

notice as a result of screened music. Screened music gave room to 

great consumption of Western pop musical culture as a result of 

advancement in technological revolution as thus, from Cinema to 

Television, to Video Home System (VHS), Video Compact Disk (VCD), 

Digital Video Disk or Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) and now the internet 

which has become more prominent with its use via the laptop, palm top 

and mobile phones has gone beyond mere transformation of pop music 

in Nigerian but, also has posed a socio-cultural phenomenon. Presently, 

massive dissemination of music product through Bluetooth device both 

on personal computers and on cell phones have allow sharing of all sorts 

of musical arts products amongst nations of divers culture. The 

internet has made it generally easy for every one to access all sort of 

musical product from anywhere in the world, with it elimination of 

boundaries in the virtual world. Consequently, the lingering fear of 

losing the real touch of Nigerian art form in the pop music scene is the 

great challenge this trend has posed to future Nigerians.  

 

 

Nigerian Pop Music in the New World 

The technological revolution at its invention of computer system and 

network increasingly enhanced global anxiety over new media with its 

connectivity, boundary elimination and personal computer practices, 

which exposed the society to a new trend of digital music consumption 

culture. This obviously influenced the behavioral attitude and 

imaginations of the Nigerian pop stars, especially, in the way they 

think, the models they set for themselves, the standard they measure 

with, perception,  acceptance  and representation of themselves as 

depicts in today‟s Nigeria pop musical arts and expressions. These 

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therefore, contributed lots of cultural tendencies, even to the 

majority of Nigerian youths who are the primary consumers of pop 

music. What is happening in Nigeria today may be described as purely 

cross-fertilization and fusion of musical arts and culture. Music 

created and performed using foreign languages or combination of 

English and Nigerian Pidgin-English, Western dance and African dance 

form, Western musical instruments and intonation, computer voicing 

and effects backups, have become a key expression of 21st century 

Nigerian pop music.  

 This is probably because, many people now have access to 

creative digital music tools through the widespread dissemination of  

portable computing technology, the internet and software applications 

which enables music creation, dissemination and  reception from 

various parts of the world and culture. Consequently, the 21st century 

pop stars in Nigeria have expressed immense exchange of musical arts 

and culture in pop music scene. Butler 2006 expressed that, 

During the 20th century, most music has become accessible 

worldwide through a technological revolution that has produced 

high-quality sound and video recording, radio and television, and 

computers. It is difficult to overstate the importance of these 

innovations on musical cultures around the world. It has become 

possible to record music of the many musical cultures in the 

world, including music that has traditionally been learned and 

passed on orally or aurally. On the other hand, the boundary 

lines among many cultures, and between subcultures, have 

shifted dramatically and in some cases have disappeared. There 

has always been some cross-fertilization among musical 

cultures, and this is often a sign of healthy cultural and artistic 

growth. One well-known example is the musical mixture of 

Hispanic and Germanic cultures in the American Southwest 

during the 19th century, which produced the conjunto or Tex-

Mex style still popular in the region today. (Counted, 2011). 

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However, while some scholars worry that cross-fertilization 

amongst musical art cultures will eventually drift towards a single 

global music that is weak, lacks creativity and unvaried, others on the 

other hand, mostly conservative scholars argued that this 

development implies a growing counter movement to preserve the 

diversity of cultural heritages, including Nigerian traditional music 

arts and expressions. This new trend of assisted internet music 

consumption culture has introduced a new aesthetics and culture 

amongst our pop star. Considering recent albums of some Nigerian pop 

stars like, Psquare, TuFace Idibia, Dibanji and so many others, one can 

hardly place their expressions, dance steps, drama, costume and even 

their setting to depict Nigerian arts and expression. Rather what we 

see on stage end up resulting to Americanized Nigerian pop stars. This 

appears too difficult to control due to the advancement of technology 

today. On the provision of good digital storage devise with capabilities 

of storing both audio and visual music performance for personal use 

and consumption, the quest for Nigerian pop stars to imitate, compete 

and measure up with their counterparts in the Western world 

increased. This expedition by Nigerian pop stars denies the room for 

expression of Nigeria popular music culture. This will continue to 

facilitate new approaches to Nigerian pop musical arts because, the 

adoption and borrowing of new arts forms from other culture‟s musical 

arts may never let our pop musical practices to run in the core of 

Nigerian notion, rather, it will continue to follows a string of change 

that is not just a simple fashion but a truly deep sociological 

phenomenon that has important socio-cultural, moral and economic 

implication. In view of this, Robson confirmed that, 

The global culture is producing a musical multiculturalism that 

takes a number of forms — it only has a trivial string of its root; 

there is no folk-level trace anymore. These are often framed with 

neo-traditional nametags. Hybrid musical forms cross the boundaries 

between classical, contemporary R&B and Hip pop and folk or afro 

musical forms within the various cultures they bridge. (Robson: 2009). 

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Western Pop Stars on Nigerian Screen; Its Pressure on Pop 

Musical Art in Nigeria 

Quite unlike in traditional Nigerian societies, where music making and 

consumption are generally organized as a social event while music 

performance and consumption takes on occasion when members of the 

community come together for an event of ceremony, rite or 

recreational activities and those who get together in such social event 

generally belong to one ethnic and language group (Odunuga, 2009. 

74). Nigerian pop star in recent days are under pressure to be like 

their counterpart from the United States of American. Their quest to 

Americanize both them selves and the musical arts are often raised 

by their fans who seems to patronize Western pop stars more than 

they do to local pop musicians here n Nigeria. Thus instead of Nigerian 

pop scene taking on Nigeria traditional mode of production, 

performance and dissemination, they chose to imitate and copy the 

Western traits of musical arts via internet, television, cinema etc. 

Most of them now go to the extent of setting their musical albums in 

foreign environment as well as, co-producing with popular American 

artist. Thus, losing every trait of Nigerian musical arts in their 

productions; their dance steps takes after Western dance style as 

can be seen in P-square‟s album titled „Personally‟. The entire dance 

steps used here was likened to that of late Michael Jackson, who was 

the acclaimed king of pop in the United States of American.    

However, this trend is not in tune with the production and 

performance musical arts in Nigeria where music production in its 

framework often assumes multiple roles within the community and at 

the same time serves as an opportunity for sharing in creative 

experience. Historically, music (instrumentals), song (vocal), dance and 

story-telling are among the ancient art forms that have flourished for 

many centuries in Nigeria. And they characterized Nigerian musical 

expression which plays very important roles in the lives of the people. 

In fact, it is impossible for any Nigerian community to exist and 

Sunday-Kanu, Rita Adaobi 



 
 

154 

function well without music and its related arts forms. Such musical 

arts have served both functional and aesthetic purposes.  

Nevertheless, early historical accounts of music and dance 

among Nigerian‟s can be found in oral literature that took different 

forms such as folk tales, myths, epics, praise poems and historical 

accounts on rituals. The utilitarian function involves the use of music 

in everyday activities, including music at birth, child‟s naming 

ceremonies, child rearing practices, initiation rights, agricultural 

activities, national ceremonies, war times, religious ceremonies, death 

etc. In other words, Nigerians traditionally have a very rich oral 

tradition that insures the transfer of musical art practices from one 

generation to another. It is good to mention that the reception and 

consumption style of Nigerian musical performances have been very 

important skills that contributed to perfected oral traditional 

practices, even though, in this 21st century, only very few musical arts 

and dances are still transmitted in oral forms only. This is probably as 

a result of technology that has swallowed every facet of musical 

practices. Thus, musical arts of Nigerians today, just like every other 

art forms reflects the widespread system of cultural and 

technological evolution. Coming from the oral transmission of musical 

arts from one generation to another, to people tuning to radio FMs 

and later to television stations just to listen to and watch current 

music and dance. Presently, internet and music software revolution 

have brought about new trend of online sites streaming music, for less 

cost and wider accessible to different worlds music, of which some 

are more or less free of charge. This has made it that users can stick 

to their own choice of music rather than waiting for whatever piece of 

music that the radio/ television presenter chooses play for them  or 

worst still, waiting for communal musical practices before they will 

enjoy the music they like.   

Consequently, the motive of traditional Nigerian musical arts 

and culture which conditions the desire to join and improve communal 

living is gradually being murdered by this new technological /digital 

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155 

drift.  Many people now use uTube as a music player, having both the 

video clips with the music they desire listening to. A number of people 

also use the music service iTunes (usually in conjunction with iPods) to 

acquire their music. They often download musical products to enable 

them listen to them at their convenient time, more so, as most phones 

and personal computers have Bluetooth support and Bluetooth is free 

in dissemination of musical product, so they utilizes its features to 

send and receive music clips, videos clips and pictures from friends.  

Nevertheless, the invention of various computer music based tools and 

their application in music creativity, performance, dissemination and 

consumption have lasted for several decades and now it is an integral 

part of our every day life, it has eating deep into our society so much 

that it actually dictate the direction, tone and pace of Nigerian pop 

musical arts. (Robson: 2009). 

 

 

Conclusion / Summary 

Integration of  Western musical arts styles and forms into the 

context of Nigerian pop musical art expression have initiated an 

unprecedented revolution in the musical art idiom in Nigeria. This 

inclination is prevalent mostly amongst Nigerian young pop stars. As a 

result, music production, performance, dissemination and even 

consumption have significantly introduced a whole new era of 

multicultural musical arts expression and culture in our society. This 

trend has made it very difficult for Nigerian popular musician to stick 

to their own language, even when they are addressing audiences within 

their linguistic territory. This has therefore offered a new 

framework of thinking and behavior; amongst Nigerian youths who are 

the major consumers of such music. However, the reception of pop 

music in Nigeria today is purely for entertainment, no cultural 

integrity attached, and it has embraced the new media as a means for 

mass dissemination and consumption. Consequently, pop music and 

other genres of musical art expression in Nigeria are sustained by 

Sunday-Kanu, Rita Adaobi 



 
 

156 

media industries. But, the impact of these sonic materials and 

borrowed musical idiom and expressive arts can be said to have more 

than contribute to the loss of Nigeria identity, norms, values, cultural 

ethos and beliefs.  

This trend of mixed cultural heritage in Nigerian pop musical 

arts has succeeded in preventing cultural transmission in Nigerian 

society. Originally, African musical arts and expressions have been 

found to be more effective in cultural transmission where there are 

close links to believe, language, aesthetic, artistic values and cultural 

ethics or within a particular community, geographic location and age 

etc. Nevertheless, this new mode of musical expressions,  and 

reception sites like internet mediated, public spaces and personal 

audio systems have made it almost impossible for the past few 

decades to find a folk-level musical culture within which listeners are 

exposed to only the music of their own culture and no other. 

Consequently, the implication of screened music and globalization in 

the contemporary Nigeria pop music scene, has posed challenges on 

the guarantee of retention and relevance of Nigerian values, ethics 

and moral in their pop musical art expression. 

 

 

Recommendation 

Measures should be put in place by the ministry of Arts and Culture to 

check the degree of external cultures and values to be allowed in 

Nigeria pop music scene. Scholars of ethnomusicology and related 

field of study may assist by means of projecting Nigerian musical 

culture, traditions, values and aesthetics via internet media for 

history purposes. These to some extent may help to resolve and retain 

reasonable degree of Nigeria musical culture and identity in this new 

world. 

 

 

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157 

 

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