Soundbite

Last friday, one of my friend's phone rang. His ringtone was Bruno Mars' Lazy Song, the one he was singing about how he felt like just laying in his bed and not doing anything at all. I felt angry, with the song.
A production and recording session (excluding mastering and mixing) can take up to 6 - 8 hours if the artist and producer are good and they work uninterrupted. I had seen the video of that song, a video shoot (excluding post-production) can take a whole day.
So I'm thinking, this guy just worked hard for a total of about 20 hours to produce Lazy Song and its video, and millions of people all over the world are going to pay to listen to the song, consent to its wordings and start lazying about, believing that they are in good company. He just put in 20 hours of hardwork to make people feel lazy, and he gets richer for it?

Sunday afternoon. As I "dey waka dey go", African China's song - the one about how our government is bad and how they don't give us jobs - came to mind. Again, it got me thinking. The wordings of this song may be true, but what that is not I had an issue with.
China made it, to a good extent, in the Nigerian music industry. He used his talent to create a niche for himself and a way out of poverty. I believe he came from an environment that had a number of unemployed guys, all looking up to the government for jobs. But he wasn't one of them, atleast not anymore. He traded his talent, worked his way out of poverty by looking inwards and working hard. My question then: why didn't he use the song to encourage people to do the same, to look inward and find something that they too can start doing, commit diligently to as he has done and rise inspite of the state of things.
So again, millions, including the broke, unemployed guys, spend the money they haven't enough of to get and listen to this music, feel more hopeless and powerless and join him to push the blame (responsibility) to the government. But he isn't doing the same himself, he took responsibility. He spreads hopelessness and despondency from the same breath that could have so easily been used to spread hope and a way up.

Sunday night. I stumbled upon a video on Youtube. It was about the life of porn actors and actresses that had left the industry. A couple of them talked about how they were preyed upon by the producers, taking advantage of their low self esteem and what not to sweet-talk them into acting porn. They talked about how they felt used, empty, like inanimate sex objects after, how hard it is to get around without wondering if someone had seen you in "action", how they have now changed (2 of them said they are now born again).
But this last lady, she claimed she was okay, that the other guys were just not suited for the "job". She admitted that their work takes its toll on them, but that she was fine, she was happy. Infact, she still ran an "adult" radio show where she reviewed and recommended porn movies to listeners.
The interviewer then asked her what she would do if her daughter walked up to her and told her that she wanted to start acting porn, just like mama, whether she would be okay with it? She said she will look at herself as a mother and wonder where she had gone wrong.
I was hurt, deeply. So all the while, she was fronting like Allizwell, doing her radio show and stuff,  but deep down she knew that something had to be wrong for her, her daughter or any other person for that matter to want to go into porn. According to the show, she was voted one of the top 50 porn stars of all time (how does that even work?), so it was not the opinion of some bitter industry failure, it was coming from someone who has seen it all, done it all. Yet she was so aware of the truth that she could confess it without hesitation!

Why? Why the double standards? I'm very concerned about this because this (entertainment industry) plays a huge role in shaping the minds and influencing the lives of many, many people. Most of what many people know or think about anything comes from media, especially entertainment; people don't study books anymore. And once they are influenced, it is very hard to correct them even after the person who did the influencing changes.

How then can we get these guys to use their platform constructively. Yes, it is just entertainment, but it could be underlined with constructive messages. They have the people's attention, their hearts and minds, why not plant seeds of change. Entertainment and values are not mutually exclusive na, abi wetin una think?