adminJoseline Sithole
The National Arts Merits Awards (NAMA) have come and gone.
Beautiful dresses as well, though some of our musicians and artistes might need a little Joyce Shiri magic (the image consultant, I wrote about last year) Loved that Ammara Brown and Tamy Moyo dress. Stunning indeed. And thankfully the ladies mostly covered up their “bits” as well. Congratulations to Tamy Moyo for beating heavy weights, Ammara Brown and Janet Manyowa in the best female musician category.
We are also forever grateful to Ambuya Stella Chiweshe for placing Zimbabwe’s traditional music on the global arena. She definitely deserves that life time achievement award. And Yes, Yes, and Yes!!! one of my favourite songs “Kure” won best song. However, not many dancehall artistes this year though Enzo was nominated. And certainly, “silence” within the urban grooves genre with only Emmanuel “Guspy Warrior” Manyeruke being nominated. Though there have been rumblings from urban groovers that they feel short-changed and excluded by the nomination committee, it does not take a rocket scientist to realise that the genre has been slowly fading from the Zimbabwean music landscape.
But we do miss those urban grooves. Those soulful love songs sung in vernacular took us back to the days at Bonda when we had “song books” and dreamily wrote all the love songs. We could sing all those songs too. Songs such as “Ndiyambuke” and “Tenda” were my favourite from Roy and Royce. I call Roki the Michael Jackson of Zimbabwe and I am holding on to that notion.
Decibel, Plaxedes Wenyika, Betty Makaya and Leonard Mapfumo to name just a few artistes have since digressed to undertaking other things or migrated from the country altogether. Of course, others are still hanging on. Alexio Kawara and Tererai to name just a few. All Pauline Gundidza could say after an interview before a performance of urban groovers for die hard urban grooves fans was that “I still feel proud to be counted among the pioneers of the once popular genre in the country”. Sad isn’t it!!!!
What really happened here? The decline of this music genre is replica of powerful brands whom we only remember when teachers teach a badly named child. (My people can be so moved by things they don’t hesitate to call their children by those names), so I bet you there is a Kodak or Nokia Sithole somewhere out there.
In October 1998, Nokia became the best selling mobile phone brand in the world with the Nokia 1100 being the best selling mobile phone. By the end of 2007 half of all smartphones sold in the world were Nokia, but in 2013 the giant was acquired by Microsoft. According to one writer Nokia was to mobile what Kleenex was to tissue paper.
Guys had it “good” during the Blackberry era. The Blackberry era is well renowned for remarkably cutting short the time the guys took to ask a girl out (A sometimes long drawn effort especially in Zimbabwe). All the guys needed to do was take out their Blackberry and the girls will go “swooning”. And of course, we miss “Hello Motto“ that Motorola phone again too faded into oblivion and replaced by new kids on the block, Samsung and iPhone.
So, all in all what is the reason why brands fail or disappear altogether on the face of the earth? How can brands survive an ever-changing global business landscape and not sink into oblivion like Nokia and Motorola? Al Ries and Laura Ries in their epic book, “The 22 Irrefutable laws on branding” offer sound advice and laws on how brands should keep afloat. I have picked five of my favourite laws to try and unpack why the urban grooves movement had inherent cracks as a music genre.
The law of contraction
The law of contraction states that a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. When a brand offers too many things, sometimes the quality of the brand decreases. According to Kunaka.com the name urban grooves, covered many things. The website went to call it “awkward” According to this website; “The irony is that it was partly fitting in attempting to pass off the genre as just African American-influenced Zimbabwean music.” Irikidzayi Manase writing in the “Social Dynamics Journal” notes that; ” Urban youths such as Stephen Chifunyise, Maskiri, Decibel, Plaxedes Wenyika who were brought up in the different urban suburbs and townships in the country, drew in South Africa, kwaito music, American hip hop, R&B, Jamaican dancehall reggae and International jazz.”
Overall these “fusion of a plethora of many genres coupled with trying to “vernacularise” the sound was never going to last. In Zimbabwe genres such as sungura, chimurenga and Tuku are easily identifiable and stuck to one segment.
Though companies such as Coke have digressed into other areas such as energy drinks (Vitamin C Water) and fruit drinks, Coke still owns the name for soft drinks throughout the world.
The law of quality
Brand building is synonymous with quality. Fashion, watch and accessory brands are built on this concept. Brands such Rolex, Prada, Tony Hilfiger, are relentless with their promise of quality and longevity. In turn their consumers reward them by paying those premium prices and being loyal to those brands.
We cannot fault the lyrical prowess of the Urban Grooves genre. However, that’s where everything ended. Their stage performances were perceived as very weak due to lack of live instruments. A look at performances by Oliver Mtukudzi, Jah Prayzah and Thomas Mapfumo will show that these artistes took time to use live bands. Currently Zimdancehall artistes like Winky D, are the preferred curtain raisers for international artistes.
The law of consistency
Brands should be consistent and should constantly deliver on their promise. A quick peek at the Super brands awards which are hosted by the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe, show that there are brands that consistently appear in the top 200 every year. To mention just a few, brands such as Nyaradzo, Afdis, GteL, Econet and EcoCash fall into this consistent category. Globally brands such as iPhone consistently give their die-hard fans quality products and it shows in the growth of their annual profits.
However, our urban groovers seemed to have produced remarkable first albums and thereafter, output waned as they produced more albums. A majority seemed to have been “one album wonders” though some like Alexio and Roki seemed to have produced more. I however hear that Roy and Royce have produced an album with Mono Mukundu.
The law of borders
Coca-Cola is a global brand with more than 50 percent of its profits outside the United States of America, while Heineken a leading beer manufacturer, is dominant outside the Netherlands its native original country. Notably artistes such as Davido, Jah Prayzah, the late great Oliver Mtukudzi, Mookomba, Zimpraise Choir, Thomas Mapfumo and Stella Chiweshe, have managed to attract international audiences with their music. However, performing a show in England in a hall full of Zimbabweans can hardly be termed international music success.
In fact, what constitutes international is other nationalities and creeds being able to warm up to your music. The former seemed to be the norm among performances by urban groovers who when they performed outside Zimbabwe only attracted homesick nostalgic Zimbabweans. Urban groovers were largely restricted to the Zimbabwean market and lacked an international flair.
The law of change
As the saying goes, the only thing that is constant is change. The rise of urban groovers was buoyed by a very positive policy shift towards a 75 percent local content thrust. To this end the overplay of their music on the stations meant that they had a high coverage of their music in all stations.
However, this complacency and seemingly “spoilt” attitude might have proven to be their undoing. In contrast Zimdancehall simply gave kombi drivers their music which blasted away in kombis all day long. This music was relevant, to its target markets with lyrics that could resonate well with ghetto youths. In addition, these youths were happy to create records in makeshift studios in the ghetto.
Urban groovers also failed to simply build capacity in business development so as to mitigate against the shocks of an everchanging economic environment. As a result, most of them ended up relocating to find greener pastures outside Zimbabwe.
I still believe in a revival of the urban groovers who are willing to work hard and follow basic business principles that strengthen brands over time. Sir Richard Branson has this to say about branding “Branding demands commitment to continual reinvention, striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.”
◆ Joseline Sithole is an SME Consultant and founder of Southern Africa Development Consultants (SODECO). For comments write to her on [email protected] or whatsapp +263773634062.
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