The quality of Ghanaian music took a nosedive when it was taken out of the educational curriculum following the 1982-1992 Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adopted by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, rapper Okyeame Kwame has said.
According to the rap doctor, Ghanaian music lovers appreciate music made with one chord in modern times because they do not understand the nitty-gritty of music as they would have done if they had had formal education in music.
Speaking on Entertainment Capital on Accra 100.5FM on Saturday September 3, he bemoaned the disregard for the study of music in schools.
“When you take the lyrical aspect of music alone, the lyrics is poetry and poetry is only enjoyed through appreciation, and so if you do not have the tools to decode what a poet is encoding, you can’t understand it. So the more complex the poet is, the more he alienates his fans because they will not understand him. So, for 30 years of constant music out of school…I came to hear that before us, schools engaged in singing contest, every school had a choir, every school had a singing band, every school had a pop band that was also totally different and so taking all those things out of our education [affected our music]. So, the main reason for Ghana music coming to this state that people can enjoy a song with just one chord and then it can go on and enjoy awards and become popular is because the audience are not sophisticated and it is because of the Structural Adjustment Programme,” the multiple-award-winning artiste told show host DJ Premier.
Okyeame Kwame is one of the few artistes with formal education in music. He is a graduate of music with specialisation in classical guitar from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
