The elevated status of musicians comes with more scrutiny and expectations from fans. These days fans don’t just look to musicians for music alone; they want more. When musicians engage in socially responsible projects they stand the chance of being supported, ignored, or even receiving serious backlash.
Recent events have shown our musicians that they have to accept that they’re role models and that they have a certain position in society that they’re privileged to have. Social responsibility in that role is recognizing, especially with the young artists, the power that they have. And with great power comes great responsibility. I know many public figures would say they didn’t sign up to be role models but unfortunately, once you live in the eye of the public, you are one. Your good behaviours might be taken for granted but your bad behaviours will be put on trial.
In different corners of the world, music and musicians have played and continue to play a huge role in creating awareness and raising funds for a wide variety of social, environmental, and and philanthropic causes. In the context of music consumption, research shoes that there are factors that “extend beyond simply pairing a hedonic product with a socially responsible message in order to generate a positive consumer response. Furthermore, consumers consider the authenticity of the artist or organization engaged in the socially responsible behavior and choose to dismiss musicians appearing to engage in philanthropy for self-serving reasons.”
The 2014 re-recording of ‘‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’’ generated over $US 1.7 million from digital sales in the first five minutes upon its release. However, while experiencing significant commercial success and reaching the number one position on the U.K. charts, the charity single was also being criticized for being condescending toward the recipients of the money raised and damaging in its lyrical content. We all saw the Peace Vs Justice debate that Salatiel’s song sparked.
What we can gather from the above example is that the mixed feelings towards Salatiel’s peace song are not something Cameroonian. There are many more examples of when a well intentioned song has been met with backlash. Most of the time when social awareness songs have not been well received, it has had to do with a feeling on the part of the public that the songs raised more awareness for the musicians rather than the cause itself. It is in that light that I myself questioned the need for a wardrobe change during the video shoot for Salatiel’s “We Need Peace” song.
In arguments surrounding Salatiel’s peace song, some people brought up the issue of socially responsible music by other lesser known artists that did not get the spotlight. That is also nothing new. Research also shows that people generally expect the more successful artists to be more socially responsible than they do for obscure up coming acts. That is because people believe the prominent artists generally have more resources.
Any-Ha!
So how do you make social responsibility in music work?
In most cases, it boils down to the perceived authenticity of the musician and his dedication to the cause. When it comes to authenticity, commercially successful musicians find it harder coming off as authentic. Musicians who appear to have less commercial success are generally considered to be more genuine in their messages regarding charitable and social causes -because people assume that as struggling artists themselves they may have greater empathy with social causes or societal concerns. Many comments on Salatiel’s song alluded to the fact that he was now only concerned because the crises had reached a level where his business was also being affected - go figure.
For social responsibility to work in music, the artists need to get legitimacy before engaging in doing music for any cause. Legitimacy is built when the cause is seen to match the lifestyle, experiences, and actions of the artists. What Salatiel did in the days following the internet backlash from his song release is what he should have done before even releasing the song. I am talking about joining Barrister Agbor Balla on his visit to internally displaced persons in Douala.
Since his outing with Balla, we have not seen much of him in terms of activities related to the societal issues raised in the song. Unless I missed something, we have not seen much either from the other 8 artists on the song.
Speaking about a band she considers to be socially responsibly, this UK fan had this to say:-
“Rage Against the Machine are one [who are socially responsible], I really like their music but sometimes I am like ‘ah here lads shut up will you.’ They do things themselves in fairness, they are getting their finger out not just talking which is a different story. I think they got arrested for some stupid reason like it is illegal to feed the homeless. They were feeding them though, doing it themselves rather than just saying help the homeless on the stage and then going back to their lovely houses. They actually did go out and physically help.”
Research also shows that the content of an artists body of work also determines whether or not they have legitimacy when it comes to championing social causes. It is very difficult to transition from sexually explicit videos in which you flaunt bottles of Belaire to singing about peace in the Middle East. Did you all notice Pascal has a peace song and nobody complained about it? Did you ask yourself why?
My advice to artists will be to either be constantly socially engaged beyond the music or just stay away from social activism in all its forms. There is no playing both sides. People are too sensitive for that.
- Tino Foy