Wake-up call for local acts
OF LATE, the general feeling among music fans has been that local artistes have taken a giant step towards meeting international standards.
This is largely because of the favourable airplay Zimbabwean musicians have been enjoying on international music video channel, Trace Africa.
Watching Trace Africa for an hour, one gets the idea that Jah Prayzah, Ammara Brown, Tocky Vibes and XQ are among some of the top acts on the continent.
However, the sad reality is that this channel was mainly designed to focus on Southern African artistes. Popular music video channel MTV Base recently released their list of music acts to look out for in 2017. And there are no Zimbabwean artistes among the 54 acts highlighted. Jah Prayzah, who made the nation proud last year when he won an MTV Africa Music Award in the viewer’s choice category, is not good enough for MTV Base this year.
Countries represented on the list include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana and Angola.
MTV Base came up with its list based on an assessment of current and future potential based on sales performance, active release schedule, popularity or buzz, style, radio and video airplay among other things.
Being mentioned on “Ones to Watch” is a big deal, as MTV aims to support these artistes throughout the year by building their profiles though on-air and online exposure, play-listing their repertoire, supporting key video releases, and involving them in MTV Base events.
This exclusion of Zimbabwean artistes from the list is a wake-up call for them to step up their game.
The artistes who made it to the list have proven their worth, releasing hit songs that have been making an impact across Africa.
It is no surprise that African stars like A Reece, Eugy, Gemini Major, Mr Eazi, Destruction Boyz and Nadia Nakai, to name a few, were included considering the buzz they have been creating.
The rate at which they release music ensures they keep the hype alive. Locally, very few artistes — if any — have been consistently releasing music videos that can be competitive on international platforms.
The fact that there have been very few new local tracks playing on Trace Africa shows our lack of momentum and drive.
While there have been vast improvements in terms of producing quality videos that can stand their ground internationally, it appears as if that is not enough.
Trace Africa has provided an avenue for marketing Zimbabwean artistes to other countries but that is just about it as their videos have struggled to make it to more prestigious channels.
The few Zimbabweans who have featured on the more mainstream channels are DJ Stavo, Jah Prayzah and Willom Tight — but none of them are yet talked of as continental heavyweights.
MTV Base and Trace Urban have on occasion been accused of “sabotaging” artistes from certain countries, while there are those that get favourable airplay depsite not really sounding that great.
So are Zimbabwean artistes deliberately being left out?
There are many talented local acts who are working hard to produce great music accompanied by brilliant music videos but as it stands, breaking into the big time has proved almost impossible.