adminNkosilathi Sibanda Urban Beats
MUSICIANS have a legendary appetite for drinks. Not just ordinary drinks, but alcoholic ones. The craving is not disputable.
Devoted concert goers have witnessed how their favourite stars are hooked to the bottle. It was in this placement last year that we discussed the issue of booze in the music industry. Only last Friday, in the company of a colleague with a knack for criticism, did this same issue arise.
Within minutes of a stage performance by one city musical band, we noticed one band member taking a deep sip of what we concluded was alcohol.
We got it right – and our eyes could not believe the performance that followed thereafter. The artistes were very good. Latecomers to the show never got to know what had gone on backstage.
The love for beer has been a subject of contention especially with dance groups. If you find yourself nodding in appreciation of a performance, be sure that you have been entertained by a drunken dancer.
In a bid to seek confidence and public appeal, musicians have found a friend in alcohol and any substance that induces hyperactivity.
We thought this happened only in Las Vegas, but it is right before our eyes – in every concert we pay for. The rate at which our music idols drink and do drugs would horrify any doctor. This is not peculiar to Bulawayo artistes but a whole lot from elsewhere.
Whenever you book a musician, be sure to stock a six pack of beer, lest you be served a shoddy performance.
Fans have recounted with awe at the sight of musicians who got wasted at live shows – or some who actually missed their slots because of their drunken state. The way these booze loving musos stick to alcohol is as if being a drinker is a key ingredient in the recipe for musical greatness.
Oh! What misleading behaviour for the young generation of entertainers.
Artistes in the “booze lovers” clubs have inculcated immoral behavioural trends over the past years. Now, there is the widespread belief that substance abuse in the music industry is the in thing.
Musicians I would blame for this are in the urban grooves category. Hardly does a weekend go by without meeting a musician drunk. Sadly, it is the young ones we call promising, that turn out to be social disappointments.
If it’s not the bottle, be sure that musicians will dare take the lethal of drugs to please their fans. I will strongly defend that there are Bulawayo musicians who sip the dreaded cough mixture, known to many as ingoma.
Here, is a section of social idols abusing medicine. For what reason, we ask? Only these addicts can answer you. Do not think they will respond on a sober voice. Never!
Like all alcohol and drug junkies, musicians want us to believe they perform better after downing some 40 percent alcohol content. Maybe psychologists can help clear the air.
Urban grooves artistes should not feel offended when I say they command a good membership in the booze lovers club. To say names will be next to sentencing their careers to the death bed.
But from what the newspapers have published I will be doing injustice if I do not shame some who have been caught.
You and I have read how Mcheznana, Chase Skuza, Vivienne of the Nomakanjani fame, Dereck Majaivana and others have destroyed good reputations over beer. This space is not enough to name all of them, but these few have been in the public eye for the sole reason of abusing alcohol.
Music promoters are also in the know about this. They keep quiet because they want to maximise on profit at the expense of the musician.
One young music star could not help but confess: “We were made to believe that drinking beer is normal in the business. If you are young, it is easy to be duped.”
If this is what young musicians are exposed to, then we are not building a culture.
On talking with a few established musicians, I gathered that the economic conditions that hit the country have increased the boozy tendencies.
Many in the old school generation say young musicians are becoming junkies because the industry does not pay.
So is it a matter of frustration or just plain irresponsibility? Some musicians admit to having a drinking problem and have tried to quit.
Then again, the same industry that rallied around him was at least partly to blame. The local music industry creates an environment where it not only glorifies drinking. It provides a structure for it.
One Bulawayo promoter, who has managed a number of musicians believe musicians’ drinking culture has improved over the years.
It would look as if what society deems unacceptable is desirable in the music industry.
Emerging musicians are pressured by a youth culture that has grown used to seeing outrageous, excessive behaviour in the media.
In my many years of being a loyal music fan and critique, I am certain that in the music industry excess is success.
There is an unhealthy acceptance of non-responsible drinking. So who do we turn to fix this beer scourge in the entertainment industry?
I read with interest that the Bulawayo Music Association (BMA) came out guns blazing at promoters in the City of Kings. Musicians do not blame themselves but their managers and show agents. They say these are the people contributing to the collapse of the once-vibrant showbiz industry standards.
Musicians speak of being given loads of beer before they perform only to be paid peanuts after the show.
In the words of the BMA chairperson Khuxxman, local music promoters are “ignorant and inconsiderate about the welfare of musicians.”
Well said, but where do we place the musician’s right to dictate their careers if they allow promoters to rule. It means artistes are toothless bulldogs who will never get to chew off their enemy.
Cry the beloved industry.
A local musician chose to be crude to fellow artistes who abuse the bottle. He said it might be defendable that alcohol would not affect the quality of music composition or performance but young musicians lose their lifeblood.
“I don’t think you can do away with alcohol and I don’t think you should. Having a drink makes people dance, it breaks down inhibitions. I encourage people to embrace life. Alcohol is not a bad thing, abuse of it is.”
So could the music industry ever exist without alcohol?
Let’s keep the conversation on. Follow on twitter @Nkosi legend.
Online Reporter