12 July 2010
(Lengolo Moletsane)
There goes another hot track on my playlist. You will surely never get to here it on any public radio station though. Starts another dope song. It is sounds of South Africa's most talented musician, ms [isis]*... Who do you blame if you have no idea who she is?
Must you blame the radio for not playing the same set of songs; are you going to blame yourself for not being at the right space at the right time to catch a different kind of grove or are you going to blame the artists marketing team? With all that is happening in South Africa at the moment, it is tricky to spot who is in the wrong. A great example being of an incident that happened last week in Soweto, whereby when a mob burnt the councilors house down due to the rise of electricity price.
The rise of the price electricity does not only affect the mob but the musicians too. To make music, electrical appliances are indispensables. Both inputs and outputs require massive amount of power. To make music digitally reminds me that the geyser on. Even just to rehearse has become a 'power' problem. In such cases, some musicians would wait, wait for things to be better, not seeing that they are depriving some music lovers a taste of great vibes.
Before I throw sticks and stones onto the marketing teams, I would personally like to jump onto the assassins of our musicians, the promoters. Not all the promoters though, but the promoters that take good art for granted, not caring that even artists have to pay their electricity bills. Promoters that make a killing out of the artists toil and refuse to give them all thats worth; forcing artists to sell themselves short. Where is the marketing team when you need it most? It is nowhere to be found like a chickens front tooth. The marketing teams have a tendency of only appearing when things are going well for the brand, being the artist. When times are hard, the team disappears.
Through this all, artists like ms [isis]* go out of their way, hitting that extra mile, pushing her music for us the public to reach. Her music is available for streaming and downloading on http://www.reverbnation.com/missisis on Facebook, request: ms [isis]*
Ms [isis]* produces and sings on most of her songs, packages them and releases to the public. It is then up to you, the public how you react. I blame the radio man for not being at the right space at the right time to get this music on air. Not only ms [isis]* music but music of the most hard working South African musicians, who sweat even on the coldest days, from the heat of headphones covering their ears. Yes, I blame the media that wants to break a good art after claiming to make it.
A ?uestion haunts me as I type this. Would this music of the likes of ms [isis]* be as meaningful if it was to be available everywhere, like bubblegum? Would one get tired of hearing 'good' music? Would one be forced to face the truth everytime the radio plays? What if the wonderful artists get failed by stardom? We all know what happened to the likes of Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Brenda Fassie and TK. Maybe all this happens for a reason.
Yet it would not be bad if the price of electricity would decrease, if radio would at list have a slot for a different set of songs that build my sub-culture. It would not be bad if the media focuses on uplifting more than degrading artists, if the promoters would understand the needs of music and musicians.
It is ms [isis]* Cartoon Background that gives me hope, making it safe for me to say: I'd love to hate being a musician in SA.
