Music that gets your soul dancing: One big fan, Dara Oluwatoye, writes about the great but unexpected growth of electronic dance music in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.
There was a time when EDM in Nigeria was purely a foreign concept. The average Nigerian’s knowledge of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) was either non-existent or limited to mentions of artists like Calvin Harris, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia and a few more. That narrative is slowly, but surely, starting to change.
The cycle of new music usually starts from the underground; a few artistes take sounds, reinvent it and make it theirs. Then struggle to push it till it’s mainstream. EDM went through its growing stages in America and Europe, and now, it’s starting in Nigeria.
As an avid listener and lover of EDM music, my first contact with electronic music was through the radio show “Rick Dees on The Weekly Top 40”. Sunday afternoons in 2012, on the way back from church with the radio volume up, as I sang along and danced to music from Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, Alesso and Calvin Harris, to mention a few.
Electronic Dance Music does not resonate with everyone, but the people who love it would probably describe it as “music that gets your soul dancing”. And they’d be right. EDM has a lot of sub-genres like dubstep, electro house and more, so it allows for both fast-paced, bass-thumping music or slow tempo sounds.
The World of Electronic Music
The beginning of EDM came from the disco genre, heavily popular in the late 1970s. Disco music aimed to move people on the dancefloor, using drum machines and electronic instruments to create synthesized rhythms. The first sounds of electronic dance music that current EDM fans would recognize are those of techno music, house music, dub and trance. In the ’90s, electronic dance music was still breaking into the mainstream. The inclusion of these new subgenres helped propel it into popularity, making EDM a part of the mainstream music industry like never before, especially in Europe.
According to Forbes, the highest-paid electronic act for 2019 was the Chainsmokers, who garnered $46 million in pretax income. Tracks like “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Something Like This,” & “Paris” soared to a million streams in no time and got the DJ duo to where they are today. Other artists on the leaderboard are Marshmello with $40 million, Calvin Harris with $38.5 million and Steve Aoki with $30 million.
The global EDM scene is now worth $7.3 billion (2018). That’s almost enough to give everyone on this planet a dollar. According to the IMS (International Music Summit), this enormous statistic is based on the worth and value of the EDM scene as a whole. Imagine how much of this global worth could eventually stem from Nigeria if people here began to invest in it.
The Beginning
The first famous mention of an EDM artist in Nigeria has to be Sigag Lauren. The 22-year-old EDM producer from Bayelsa state gained popularity when his song remixes of Johnny Drille’s ‘Wait For Me’ and Simi’s ‘Smile For Me’ gained massive radio play. He went on to do more remixes of songs from artists like Ric Hassani, Wizkid, Brymo, Chinko Ekun, to mention a few. In 2018, he released his debut single, ‘Party Nights,’ featuring Deborah Prest. Lauren’s sound explores many genres of EDM, including progressive house and electro-pop. He’s also found a signature style, a rich blend of Afro-pop and EDM, which he generously showcases on the ‘Love and Greatness’ EP with DJ Neptune.
Netng spoke with six EDM acts actively making music in Nigeria from the growing community. They told me what EDM was for them, how they started and what they hope will be the future of electronic music in Nigeria.
Tropical Kenny: “I started making electronic music after hearing Sigag Lauren’s Smile For Me Remix; it actually opened my eyes that electronic music wasn’t rocket science and could be done.”
Full interview here
DysleX: “When I first heard it, I didn’t know it was electronic music, but I loved it. Funny thing, I started out making DJ Mustard type hip-hop beats, but everything changed when I started exploring EDM. Then I completely fell in love with electronic music and wanted to make music like that.”
Full interview here
Calix: “While I was in school, I was trying to find my identity as a DJ. It got boring; everyone was playing the same thing. I started researching for new sounds to make myself unique. While I was on break in my second year, I went to Abuja to see my sister. I heard a song on the radio, DJ TTB played it. I didn’t know what it was, but I loved it. I got curious, and that’s how my journey began.”
Full interview here
Neutron: “I got interested in EDM because of how complicated and diverse it sounds. I enjoy how they play around with sounds, not restricted to the regular type patterns like afrobeat. My first listen was David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’, and I was obsessed with the track. I started enjoying anything like it.”
Full interview here
Maze x Mxtreme: “We love Afro sounds, but it is too normal. The culture is supposed to be diverse. We learnt how to produce together, out of curiosity, and we started producing basically anything. The particular song we heard was David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’ and also watching the duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, do what they do, watching them control the emotions of thousands of people. On and off the stage, what they do is simply amazing; they were making peoples’ lives better by inspiring them. It was inspiring!”
Full interview here
Weird Tyler: “I was a big fan of pop/rock music. I loved the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Paramore. So when the likes of David Guetta and Avicii became mainstream, it changed everything for me. I kept thinking to myself; I just want to create something that would replicate what I felt the first time I listened to their music.”
Full interview here
EDM was something they stumbled on for these young acts and couldn’t get out of their head or hearts. This drove some of them to make music. It’s not all about the money because EDM is not considered a valuable enterprise yet in Nigeria.
The Reality of Electronic Music In Nigeria
Many Nigerians who listen to EDM discovered it on a whim or accidentally on the radio. Not as a result of a deliberate attempt to push the music in Nigeria. Even now, EDM is still not considered mainstream in Nigeria. It is an untested territory that no big brand or name has yet been willing to associate with themselves.
It was a little win for the dance community in early 2020 when Chike released ‘Dance of the Booless, Vol 1’, a remix version of his album titled ‘Boo of The Booless’. It featured remixes of some songs off the album with EDM acts like Sigag Lauren, Sensei Lo, DysleX and more.
Another vital instrument that is still lacking is a vibrant community. In Nigerian, there is a growing community of EDM artists called Nocturne Music. But because EDM is relatively new to the Nigerian music scene, it hasn’t grown a large or active fanbase yet, compared to other contemporary genres. So the artistes actively functioning in Nigeria have not begun to experience the fan love and fame that their predecessors elsewhere in the world are receiving.
It is the hope that someday, EDM will achieve the same notability that other foreign genres, like hip-hop and pop, have enjoyed. “You can have an experience that you’ll remember for five years to come because that is what EDM is, it’s an experience. It’s more than music”, Maze x Mxtreme says. Maybe these starting Nigerian acts will succeed in creating a new sub-genre that will be respected worldwide. In the meantime, let’s continue to celebrate those that are attempting something new and doing well at it.
First published on August 14, 2020.