MTV gig rocks Lagos

On February 22, 2010, it was
officially five years since MTV
launched its 100th channel, and
first dedicated platform for the
African continent.
It's easy to blame MTV base (and
other urbane lifestyle channels)
for the soaring love of our
artistes and youth for American
pop culture; it's easy to accuse
the management of MTV
Networks Africa for exploiting
the situation with collecting
societies in Nigeria, and not
paying royalties, or even
treating its Nigerian staff
unfairly. But, beyond all the
issues and challenges, it's also
easy to see that MTV base
deserves credit for
transforming an entire sector of
our entertainment industry; for
helping a sluggish industry
attain full momentum, for
closing the gap between Nairobi,
Lagos, Accra and Jo'Borg while
encouraging homeboys to
match their counterparts in
Europe and America in terms of
content and quality.
The quality of videos have
skyrocketed since 2005, and,
with each passing day, more
and more directors are taking up
the challenge - making it easy
for MTV base to push up its
Nigerian content, even creating
dedicated Nigerian playlists.
At Tribeca, in Lagos, last Friday,
the Nigerian music industry
trooped out, not just to
celebrate with MTV, but to
celebrate their own growth,
since MTV base aired its first
video in 2005. It's interesting to
note that, apart from 2face
Idibia, who was MTV's first
bride, and Psquare who were
getting ready to break on the
African scene, most of today's
stars - MI, D'Banj, 9ice, Wande
Coal - were still struggling and
hoping for better days, when
MTV landed on our shores and
set up shop.
In five years, so many things
have changed. Power has
changed hands, careers have
started and ended, stars have
come and gone, fans have
changed their ways and the
direction of music videos has
changed. In the coming five
years, when MTV base will clock
10, what will be the state of
PMAN? Who will be the top stars
and star makers? What will be
the criteria for a good music
video? In what state would our
music industry be? As we
celebrate with MTV and yet
again encourage them to
increase their local content, it'll
be nice for stakeholders to have
a sit-down and look at the past
and the future of contemporary
Nigerian music, using the
coming of MTV base as case
study…