We have identity crisis in our music industry - Industry players

Cape Coast, Mar 12, GNA - Panelists at a roundtable on “Sustaining a distinctive Ghanaian Musical Identity in a Globalised Musical Mix” have stressed the need for stakeholders to work towards addressing ‘identity crisis’ in the music industry in Ghana.

They said Ghana was gradually losing its identity on the global market with the growing interest and preference for western genre of music at the expense of its rich musical rhythms.

“We are failing to represent that accent of our country on the global market and so it is important we know who we are, where we are coming from and the kind of rhythm that we have and work to sustain it”, they stressed.

The panelists included Mr Kojo Antwi, a veteran Ghanaian Highlife Musician, Mrs Diana Hopeson, Gospel Musician and Former President of Musicians Association of Ghana (MUSIGA).

Others are; Professor Isaac Richard Amuah, a Music Professor at the Department of Music, University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Nana Ekua Apeatsiwaa II, Central Regional President of MUSIGA.

They also expressed worry about the musical content that was reduced to profanity and stressed the need for the society to be fed with the right songs and holistic music.

The roundtable formed part of a 14-day Workshop and activities of the 6th biannual Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) Graduate School’s ‘Performing Sustainability’ Culture and Development in West Africa underway at UCC.

The SDG Graduate School is a collaborative German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)-funded project carried out jointly by the Universities of Hildesheim (Germany), Maiduguri (Nigeria) and Cape Coast (Ghana).

It focuses on the overlapping areas of culture, performance and sustainable development.

The panelists admonished stakeholders including; parents, teachers and music educators, the community, Government and other institutions such as MUSIGA and GAMBRO to play their respective roles to change the narrative.

“As Parents, we need to play our indigenous music to our children, teach them folk songs and it will go a long way to sustain our indigenous music”, they advised.

Mrs Hopeson advised Ghanaian and African musicians to stick to their identical rhythms and identify ways of staying relevant in the industry.

“It is important to know where you come from and the rhythms that are identical to your tribe and think of how you can make them relevant and make it stand out. Africa has a place in the global market”, she stated.

She urged government to institute policies to guide and direct the industry.

For his part, Mr Kojo Antwi stressed that though music was dynamic and changed over time, the basic principles and the rhythmic patterns of rich Ghanaian music must not be distorted in the name of change.

Prof. Isaac Richard Amuah, a Music Professor challenged academic institutions to take bold steps to document indigenous Ghanaian musical rhythms saying, “Part of the problem is because we have not documented our indigenous music”

He said some crude, unrefined music had surfaced on the airwaves mainly because the nation failed to introduce its rich indigenous music to the youth and were just falling for anything.

GNA

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