Leisure 

Sunday, February 23, 2014 

Why Ugandan songs no longer last

The late Philly Lutaaya

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The late Philly Bongole Lutaaya’s songs continue to amaze in 2013 and yet he recorded them in the 1980s.

 Afrigo Band one of Uganda’s celebrated bands also has a lot of enduring songs. Some were recorded in the early 1990s but listening to them now, one would think they were recorded yesterday. The same cannot be said of songs being released today.

 Ugandan songs of these days seem not to live long enough as to co-exist even with the next song released by the same artiste. Today, we have ‘Valu Valu’ and it is in every night club, on every pair of lips, cherished by the young and old, and playing on all airwaves, and the next day we have ‘Badilisha’ doing the same and burying the former as if it never existed. 

Not so long ago, we had Rema’s ‘Oliwange’ and Fire ‘Tonight’ were very huge songs, but they lasted for under 6 months, with her latest ‘kukaliba’ making us forget those two even existed. This is in contrast to the great and enduring records by the late Elly Wamala, Philly Bongole Lutaaya and Afrigo Band whose songs –from the first to the last sounds equally good and displays the same kind of standard they must have done at their time. 

Kamwokya based musician Bobi Wine puts the blame on the ‘curse’ of variety stemming from the easy access to resources for production.

He says that the current economy offers the public freedom of choice of television stations, social media/internet and as a result, artistes, producers and consumers have more power than back in the day when it was hard to break through. 

Many artistes mean consumers will always have something new while forgetting the old. It also means that artistes will not take time to produce songs that will last, because of the desire to have some more music out.

In the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, Uganda had a just a few artistes with limited facilities so when a hit dropped, the crowds embraced it like a new baby, treated it like an only child and even when the next one came, two three or more lone children would co-exist. 

 Dream studios manager Eddy Yawe attributes the failure to the need to make quick money by artistes in the music industry today. According to him, a song like ‘Basima Ogenze’ is cross-cutting and that universality gives it an advantage over other songs. ‘Emmesse’ on the other hand passes for a momentary hit – one to make an artiste famous so that he throws a concert and gets some money or makes a better hit and gets a bigger following.” 

The competitive nature of the industry has surely affected the longevity of songs. Sometimes good songs are actually produced, but better ones do come through in a short span of time making the public forget the previous ones. In some instances the artistes entering the field have little or no training and experience. 

Time and thought go into producing great songs  so a lasting song is a well written song. Sometimes it is not about the song playing in the media but the ideology. 

Some people have complained about the attitude of people who distribute the music, from DJs to radio presenters and others.  They tell you the song is now old when you’ve hardly made enough sales to support you into another   The free entry of artistes and the diversity available to audiences has cost the industry great songs not only in Uganda but the world over.  Even in the United States, or in the United Kingdom, its common to find this time next year the songs that were hits are forgotten.Therefore artistes have to take time, especially when they are off the limelight, to do a lot of work. 

By Winnie Mandela, Sunday, February 23rd, 2014