Press Play

Music As a Catalyst For Change

Nifemi Aluko

• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781641375559
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

Music is the catalyst of change. From the beginning of time, music has been used to build community and empower people. Music is a strong force that has led movements; marched influential changemakers and innovators to rhythms that have shaped the world. In the 21st century, music continues to play a pivotal role in inspiring positive change and moving people to tackle some of the biggest social issues of our times. In Press Play: Music As A Catalyst For Change you’ll find answers to:

• How music helps solve problems
• The science behind how we respond to music
• How music can be used to build solutions that enhance the way people feel
• How to use music at different stages of our lives
• How music can help with finding identity and boosting our collective consciousness
• And much more

Press Play explores stories and insights from Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Jason Mayden, Seun Kuti, Kendrick Lamar, Rapsody, Wanlov The Kubolor, and many others. Music is a super-play-tool to radically galvanize global empowerment. Music inspires people to take action. Music encourages dialogue, curiosity, technological advancement, cooperation, and problem-solving. It is a lot more than just entertainment. It is an instrumental agent of change.

Part I:

Music as a Spark for Change

Chapter 1:
The Divide

“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”

—Nelson Mandela

During an interview after Bob Marley escaped death from a gun attack that left him injured, he was asked whether the attack was because of his political stance.

He responded:

“Dabbling in politics? I don’t know what that is. You see, to stand up and talk for my rights. I know what that is. I don’t care who the guy is. Because my right is my right. My life. You know, all I have is my life . . . When I check it out, the biggest man was a baby one time, so I don’t know where they get all these big ideas of wanting to be rulers over people. I can’t dig it. I can’t take it.”

Bob Marley was clear about questioning a system in which certain people want to rule over others and establish laws and rules that work for them.

Would you rather be rich in a poor country or poor in a rich country?

Keep this question in mind as you read along.

The Story of Two Worlds

I travel between the Bay Area and Lagos, and I see this growing disparity between the two regions. The Bay Area is the home to the most innovative companies that have changed the way we interact with the world. The influx of capital that flooded the region in search of the chariot of unicorns—billion-dollar companies—that investors can ride on toward a profitable exit has brought about companies we all know, use, and sometimes love, like Uber, Facebook, and Airbnb.

Capital is necessary to spur and fund innovation, but this same capital has increased the cost of living for everyday workers in the area. This has pushed some natives and residents, not involved in the tech scene, out of the region because high rents have become unbearable. A growing homeless population has become apparent, and it’s not uncommon to see a person sleeping in front of the doorway of a new startup that has raised millions of dollars.

Put your headphones on and join me on the twenty-plus-hour journey to Lagos, a city of twenty-two million. The city of hustle. You are immediately alerted to that bustling energy when passengers on the flight stand up to get their luggage out of the bins while the plane is still being towed to the gate. Even Grandma is not going to be last leaving the plane. Everyone is trying to get ahead. The hustle begins. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with 200 million people, half of them younger than nineteen years old.

Just like in the Bay Area, all you have to do is drive around Lagos to see the disparity in wealth amongst its citizens. Unlike the properly paved and networked road in California, the ever-appearing potholes on the streets of Lagos have been collaborating with its vehicles for decades now. As public transit buses get packed like sardine cans, an array of SUVs and siren-adorned vehicles shove through the madness with military and private security. A medley of horns, bumped bumpers, and the ever-frequent resolution of arguments all make an appearance on the tracks of Lagos. At intersections, young children plaster their face on the windows of vehicles in search of passed-on wealth from active city-dwellers striving to make a living. Despite Nigeria’s resource richness, the giant of a nation has one of the largest number of people living below the poverty line.

Between the two cities, the contrast and disparity in wealth is clear. Within each city, the similarities of the divide are glaring. And unfortunately, the divide is growing.

The Growing Divide

The major social movements around the world that date back to recorded history all stem from an “oppressed” group rising against its “oppressor,” from the biblical exodus to documented revolutions in Europe to the social movements of the sixties and seventies around the world. These movements can be traced back to the roots of a growing dissatisfaction with the inequality or the disproportional aggregation of wealth and resources with the minority “ruling class.” Over centuries, musicians have used their voices to illuminate these issues. They have communicated, through words and feelings, the sentiments of those who strive for equality and dignity.

So how bad is it? What is the disparity in wealth? Who is to blame?

Let’s assume the world was a concert of hundreds of people to understand the wealth of the concert through the eyes of the concert organizer.

The VIP section of the concert has ten people. Those ten people own 84 percent of the wealth in that concert.2

“General admission folks kindly move to the side please,” says the concert organizer. “Let’s make way for the VVIP.”

The Very Very Important People (VVIP) section will be one table, and it will have a single person at it.

You see, the music doesn’t start until the VVIP shows up because he or she owns 45 percent of the wealth in the concert.3

“Once again, general admission, stop the rowdiness,” yells out the concert organizer. “After all, sixty-four of you have contributed only 2 percent of the wealth of this musical orchestration. My apologies if the speakers do not work in your section.”4

Just like the concert, the growing disparity is illustrated in real life, as the top 1 percent has captured twice as much growth as the bottom 50 percent globally in the last forty years.5

The Way It Has Been—Rich in Poor or Poor in Rich?

So back to my initial question: Would you rather be rich in a poor country or poor in a rich country?

Would you rather be a VIP in a subpar music concert or at the worst section of general admission at a great concert?

What’s your answer?

Let me start by confessing that I didn’t think up this question, though I have thought about it frequently as I moved between Nigerian and the United States. I came across this question online.6 It was posed by Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He puts this question forth at the beginning of every autumn class. He was quick to admit that the question brings “considerate and inconclusive debates.” But he devised a more structured and limited version of the question, for which there is a definitive answer.

I’ll spare you the details about percentage of national income and per capita income adjusted for cost of living or purchasing power. The brief analysis showed that, measured on material living standards, a poor person in a rich country is more than twice as well off as a rich person in a poor country.

I wondered if I was better off in America or Nigeria?

I thought about the lack of a well-built health care system in Nigeria. With all the money, the president still had to go to England for medical checkups. I shook my head thinking about it all.

The point of this comparison is to put a spotlight on the inequality across countries relative to inequality within countries. From the industrial revolution to globalization to the information age, the ebb and flow of global and domestic inequality is the cause of a lot of the social issues we have in our capitalism-driven world. The rise of domestic inequality in once-rich countries now stokes the flames of populist sentiment and border-erecting protectionism.

A good way to think about solutions for the future is to ...