By Tolu Ogunlesi
1. ‘My name is …’
Have you ever wondered how musicians end up with the names they use onstage? Some shorten their names, that’s how Bankole Wellington became Banky W, and Dapo Oyebanjo became D’banj. The twins Peter and Paul go the way of mathematics (P times P) to become Psquare, but Tiwa Savage keeps her birth name. It’s different in the case of Jude Abaga, he settles, not for J-Abags or Jabaga, but for Mr Incredible (M.I). Different bars for different stars.
Now you need to get a name for yourself, just in case this is the year your music career kicks off…
2. This is Nigeria
Imagine you had to introduce Nigeria to someone who’d only ever heard of the country through Wikipedia. Now go on and imagine you were only allowed to do this using a music playlist. Nigeria in ten songs. What ten songs would you pick, that you think might sufficiently capture the Naija spirit? Would they all be contemporary Hip-Hop or rap songs? Or would there be any Oliver de Coques or Dan Marayas or Victor Olaiyas in there somewhere?
3. ‘My name is … and I shoot videos for YouTube.’
Huh what? Go ahead and do it! That’s why you’ve got a mobile phone (and that’s why your phone’s got a camera!)
Look for a song you love that’s got a video you can’t stand. That’s an invitation to shoot your own cool video. Here’s your shot at being a Clarence Peters or Kemi Adetiba. But you need to start at the beginning. First things first. Believe you can do it. Second, have a plan for the video. You can’t shoot a video without a plan. Decide what you’d like your video to look like. Write a list of scenes, and settings, to guide your shoot. And don’t try to do it alone. What are friends for, if they can’t help crowd your video…
4. Gangnam needs a baby bro…
Last year Psy created a dance that became a global hit – more than a billion hits on YouTube, and endless copycatting everywhere from Lafia to Luanda to Luxembourg.
If there’s something you should be hoping to do this year it’s to create your own hit dance style. Go on, admit it – you can already see Michelle and Barack Obama rocking to your hit in the Oval Office…
(c) Star Music 2013