Uju Stevens: Use Your Craft to Change Society

Times have changed. Apparently, chivalry, innovation, substance and values have passed away with time too. I thought that things are meant to get better with time? Why is the reverse the case for this generation? We wonder why there were less broken homes in the era of our parents and grand parents, we cant phantom why they had lesser suicide rates than we do. Is it remotely possible that they didn’t have problems? These are questions in my head begging for answers.

I don’t understand why bad news gets so much attention and good news doesn’t, half cad pictures get more likes than reasonable articles like this one. We must be doing something wrong that we need to correct. If things are this bad in my generation, what will happen when my grand babies walk the face of the earth and I am almost forgotten? I shudder to think about it.

But then, why won’t our generation go daft, when we are exposed to almost useless information? They say that you are what you listen to; you are also what you eat. If all this generation feeds on is junk, why complain of malnourishment?

Today, I spent half of my day in Lagos traffic and my stereo kept me company through the wait. I was hooked to Naija FM and the DJ was on fire with old school jams. Songs like for instance by Tuface, Believe by J Martins, originality by Faze amongst several others.

While I enjoyed these jams from way back, I wondered what happened to the beautiful inspiration behind music. Is it possible that we have emptied the barrels of music and can only produce noise? What happened?

Why are musicians singing about bums and backsides and are bagging awards? Why are musicians instigating unnecessary social competition and our youth are looking up to them? Why are musicians telling our young ones about money in their accounts without teaching them to bring their A game?

Why are musicians starting social media campaigns and forming unreasonable gangs instead of teaching them to dedicate them selves to hard work?

Music is a universal language we all speak, it is a talent that is God given. I think that talents should be used to make the world a better place. Let your lyrics speak life. Allow your lyrics inspire us to want more out of life. Use your lyrics to start a positive movement. Learn from people like Bob Marley, Fela kuti amongst a whole host of others.

What do you think will happen if you were in a bad mood and stumbled on “Believe” (If you believe, you go defeat, stand up to your feet and say not to your defeat), imagine that you were contemplating losing your virginity and you stumbled on “if love is a crime”(there’s been a lot of toasting… I can’t believe she’s still a virgin, she’s been keeping herself…).

Just imagine.

I choose to believe that substance and innovation is not overrated.
Even though it appears we are late bloomers, we can make a difference if we still want to.
I know that there are a lot of social media influencers who can still make a difference. Use your prowess and change our society. Teach us values that will stand the test of time. We need us to make a difference. It’s not to late to try.

I rest my case.

This article is neither a shade or shout out to anyone. This is me , saying it exactly as I see it.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime