Minister
commends moral standard of past musicians
Minister
commends moral standard of past musicians
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 11 July 2003 - Yaw Adjei-Duffour,
Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister on Wednesday
commended the excellent moral standards set by musicians in the past and
condemned some contemporary music, which he said rather encouraged
indiscipline.
The early
musicians gave Ghanaians and other Africans something to aim for by identifying
what was best, the Deputy Minister said at the first congress of the Brong-Ahafo Regional branch of Musicians Union of Ghana at Sunyani.
The theme for
the congress was: "MUSIGA, a chosen vessel for the fight against
indiscipline in our society". The Deputy Regional Minister mentioned the
late Ephraim Amu, Agya Koo Nimo, E.K.Nyame
as well as Obooba J.A. Adofo
and Nana Ampadu and others as musicians of old,
"whose exploits held out reasonable rewards for
successful efforts in
"In those
days, music was a metaphor for the way things worked in every aspect of society
and musicians were admired not only for their talents, but for the work they
put into developing that talent to benefit society".
Adjei-Duffour noted the drastic change in music in the country
of late, which he said, had brought about more people to make music their full
time employment. He however, added that the stiff competition in the field was
seriously affecting the quality of music produced as some rather encourage
indiscipline in all forms.
The deputy
Regional Minister cited a recent case when some women groups threatened to use
legal means to stop FM radio stations from playing some types of music on the
airwaves. He urged the regional branch of the union to use the congress for
self-examination to ensure that music produced by members conformed to the
theme of the congress.
Adjei-Duffuor complained about too much copying of songs by
musicians, with almost the same words but different rhythms, noting that
commercialisation in the industry was negatively affecting the quality of music
cassettes on the market.
He noted that
poor quality of audiocassettes used in recording songs, activities of pirates
and lack of effective methods by the Musicians Association of Ghana to check
these had hampered the industry's growth and expressed the hope that the union
would use the congress to find solutions.
In elections
supervised by officials of Electoral Commission, Kofi
Agyemang of Sunyani-based
"Life Seekers" Band of Seventh-Day Adventist
(SDA) fame was voted unopposed as Chairman.
Ebenezer Ansah polled 22 votes against three votes collected by
C.S.T. Amankwa, a popular musician based at Berekum, to become the vice chairman, while Samuel Aboagye defeated Isaac Owusu Poku by 18 votes against eight to become Secretary.
Benard Kyeremeh won unopposed
as Financial Secretary, following a last-minute withdrawal of his opponent, Opoku Agyemang and, Mrs. Rebecca Agyeman, a member of "Life Seekers" Band was
elected unopposed as Treasurer.
The rest were
Prince Osei Johnson, owner of the first and only recording studio in Brong-Ahafo narrowly beat Agyei Fofie a.k.a. "Pozo
Hayes" by 14 to 12 votes to become the Organising Secretary while Benjamin
Adu Kesseh defeated Peter Amponsah 24 to two votes to emerge as the Welfare Officer.
Alhaji Sidiku Buari, National President of MUSIGA was present at the
ceremony, which was presided by Johnny Amankonah, a businessman at Berekum
and manufacturer of Pormaa Ventures medicine.
GRi…/
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo)
''It is only by
law that will make recalcitrant musicians pay heed to advice by the association
against negative and uncouth songs produced by some musicians,'' he said.
Alhaji Buari said at the
inauguration of the Brong-Ahafo Regional branch of
MUSIGA at Sunyani. He said some musicians, mostly
those who have not unregistered with the association, were taking advantage of
the absence of such a law to release "unpalatable" music on the
market.
''Though the
copyright authorities are making great efforts to curb the practice some
musicians are adamant as there is no law to force them to stop it." Alhaji Buari said the national
secretariat would embark on a talent-hunting exercise to tap and guide young
musicians to portray Ghanaian culture especially at the international level.
''Young
musicians will be nurtured to properly play their role in the socio-economic
development of the nation'', he said. He said musicians from
Alhaji Buari appealed to
Ghanaian musicians to restrict their works to suit the Ghanaian taste instead
of copying foreign musicians. "As you can't be like Michael Jackson so there
is no need to copy his music, besides that foreign music has nothing special to
a Ghanaian", he said.
GRi…/
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