Music of Thursday, 21 July 2011
Source: Joy Online
Gospel musician, Bernard Amankwah has express worry over the current trend Ghanaian music has taken saying “we, as Ghanaians, have lost our identity when it comes to music.”
“We’ve lost our identity in the music arena,” he stressed in an interview with Myjoyonline.com adding he is currently finding it difficult to define the type of music we do today, “Now you don’t know what Ghanaians sing, today we have this, tomorrow we have that.”
Recalling what he termed was and is the Ghanaian music identity, Bernard recalled that, “Those days when you look at people like Papa Yankson and co, they did Osoode [kind of music] from the Western side while Opanin Koo Nimo did typical Sekyi hi-life and these were the things that they were doing. So they carved a certain Ghanaian identity for themselves.”
Recounting further that, legendary Ghanaian music group “Osibisa added a little bit of Caribbean, and using the 1-3-5 beat, they were able to take the world by storm. Even today’s hip hop has the same 1-3-5 beat running through it and that is the power we used to have.”
According to him, he is trying to fuse these Ghanaian elements in his music advising that, “we need to package ourselves well. If we package ourselves well like the Malians and the Senegalese, I believe that we can go far.”
Bernard Amakwah who hit the music scene officially in 2007 with his Presence album said he was saddened by the low appreciation of Ghanaian music today.
“The kind of music people appreciate in Ghana is way low,” he said advising that “always you (the artiste), the one coming have to know your target group and where you want to take the music to. If you want to base it on Ghana level you will not get any where that’s the reason why people think that Bernard is too foreign. You have to look at where you are going and target it.”
He however noted that, in spite of all the challenges facing Ghanaian music, it is encouraging to note that certain agencies are coming on board to help push artistes and their works. “With the coming up some of the hi-life festivals, I think they are re-engineering and going back to the roots,” he indicated.
Bernard advised artistes to “come up with great songs, songs that will cut across, songs that can stand the test of time, not perishable songs. Nowadays, people sing songs within the next two months, you can’t find it…no good businessman will want to put his money into something that is perishable, they want to get a long term investment.”
The inspirational gospel musician is set to outdoor two major albums at a mega concert which will open at 5pm at the National Theatre on August 7.
The concert, the second in the Experience His Power Through Worship series, will host a night of unprecedented music and worship drawing several musical giants and worshipers to God’s presence including Danny Nettey, Cynthia of Daughters of Glorious Jesus fame, Ike Nanor, Pastor Armstrong and The Committed, his team.
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