With most successful careers in the music industry are the possibilities of a flurry of benefits. Ranging from enduring wealth acquired from worldwide royalty payments, immediate sales of albums and selling out venues of concerts with millions of admirers, some artistes live through life like a bed of roses.
However, the music industry is also a delicate territory where any sudden slip might terminate an otherwise thriving career eternally. In fact, statistics suggest that the overwhelming majority of musicians’ experience failure more than success. In the recent history of music across the world, a number of artistes have suffered this twist of fate, which professionals who spoke to eelive.ng consider as largely avoidable.
Self-Inflicted or Externally-Imposed?
Characters flaws like pride, drug addiction, fraud and an assortment of sexual infractions are some of the issues that have brought down the towering image of many musical artistes in the world. Given the attention and celebrity status that success bring on artistes; many have gone on to imagine themselves as being above the society that created them and the laws that govern those societies. The effect is that these excesses become their waterloo. It should be said though that sometimes, the god of music just stop smiling on some artistes and things come crashing down, though no fault of theirs. However, whether self-inflicted or due to external factors, the fall of artistes, break the hearts of fans.
Cases in Point
American singer, songwriter and producer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, known globally as R. Kelly was on top of the world in the early 1990s. He had earned his throne atop the R&B and pop charts with songs like I Believe I Can Fly, which earned him three Grammys Awards. Music lover held him in so much esteem for the redefinition of the R & B and hip hop flavour of music. But as glowing as his music career was, the 53-year old; who is now incarcerated for various sex offences, had little foxes in his vine.
The multitalented artiste had accusations of sex crimes ranging from rape to child pornography dodging him for years. The most damaging piece of evidence was a video that featured the singer and a girl who was alleged to be 14 or 15 years old. The video was described as featuring what could only be rape and reportedly showing the singer urinating on the girl in the video.
Kelly, who is currently incarcerated at Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago faces 18 federal counts, including child pornography, kidnapping and forced labor. He is not likely to ever gain public respect for these alleged atrocities for which a number of women, who claimed to be his victims released a documentary, tiled Surviving R Kelly.
Another superstar who fell from grace to grass is late American singer and actress, Whitney Elizabeth Houston. Regarded as the most awarded female act of all times, Houston is said to have sold over 200million records worldwide.
Sadly however, she spent much time getting in and out of rehab centers due to her severe addiction to drugs. This was until February 2012 when she was found unconscious in a bath tub at a Beverly Hills, Carlifornia Hotel and pronounced dead moments later.
Grammy Winning RnB group Milli Vanilli; reigned supreme in the 1980s with singles like Blame It on the Rain and Girl You Know It’s True. It turned out their act was a fraud as they were not the actual performers of their music. The duo (Fab and Rob) were forced to give back their Grammy laurel and remained shunned in the music industry from that point on. Rob was never able to get over the public outing and eventually committed suicide.
Nigeria has its own share of artistes’ grace to grass stories. One of the country’s most beloved singers, Cynthia Morgan reigned as the Queen of dancehall music for almost three years.
This was after shooting into the limelight in 2014, with songs like Don’t Break My Heart and Lead Me On. Unfortunately, her music career slipped after she got into trouble with her label.
Other Nigerian artistes whose careers have taken a dive before they had a lasting take-off include Dammy Krane, Eva Alordiah, Ice Prince, Di’ja, and Iyanya amongst others.
Unprofessionalism Ruins Faster Than Bad Parenting
eelive.ng sought the opinion of industry experts on this issue during the week. Nigeria’s front-line Music Executive, Efe Omorogbe opined that most issues that arise are offshoots of one fundamental flaw-unprofessionalism.
His words: “One particular thing that talents forget especially when they are successful is that the music industry is a service industry. Nobody makes a living out of being a star, nobody pays you for being a star. You make money because you offer a service. At the end, a musician’s success is tied to deliverables. What’s the artiste’s attitude like?”
He explained that character and professionalism does not necessary determine how competent artistes remain, it plays a lot of role in making artistes remain in reckoning for long.
“Many artistes do not understand these things, so they let the stardom get into their heads and think it is okay to come late to meetings. They think it is okay to not show up on time for shows. When they start getting admiration, they start crossing the lines. People who have survived in the music industry because they are very professional are courteous, very dependable and a joy to work with, they are not necessarily the hottest artiste in the market…” he said.
Popular Disc Jockey and On Air Personality with Lagos based Classic FM 97.3, Benjamin “Benji” Okoh offered that some artistes sabotage their careers with pride. He noted that the entertainment industry is packed with loads of rude and arrogant individuals who miss the point about professionalism.
Okoh also identified the role that courting unnecessary controversies play in the career of some artistes. He explained: “There are two major types of controversies; one that is created by artistes just to trend or to become popular. Look at the case of Skiibii and the death hoax, it backfired. There’s another controversy where artistes take certain things for granted and believe that they can do anything and get away with it.
“The issue of rape for example, we have had several musicians; that have been enmeshed in rape issues in recent times like D’banj and Peruzzi. The controversies surrounding a musician can stop their songs from enjoying massive airplay. At a global level we saw what happened to R. Kelly. There was a global boycott of his songs.”
Prominent entertainment writer, Lolade Agoro agreed to this when she offered that: “A lot of musicians are arrogant and difficult to work with. They lack work ethics and feel all they need is talent. When you break into the market with your talent, can it sustain you?”
When Artistes and Management Don’t Agree
Omorogbe also identified that the misunderstanding of the purpose of an artiste by his management or record label could have negative impact.
He told eelive.ng: “There are artistes who have gotten commercial success but somewhere deep in their soul, do not feel like they have done what they would really like to do. There’s what we call musical prostitution. That’s when you make music that you believe the audience wants to hear, or you make music for labels. Label owners pressure musicians to make music for commercial considerations. They come up with all kinds of personae that is far from the musician’s real personality.”
He explained that even if the artistes sell out concerts and albums, this fundamental misunderstanding might ruin things!
Between Talent and Business
Yet another stumbling block for many artistes, according to Lagos-based music producer, Samibond; is musicians’ failure to understand the business of making music.
He explained: “Many musicians do not understand the business aspect of their craft. Many of them sign contracts out of excitement without going through the rules that bind them to the record label. That is why most of them fall out and find it hard to pick up. Connection with other musicians/talent agents is extremely important for mainstream success. Ultimately that is how a musician finds support, obtains feedback to improve and eventually earn the exposure that is needed for the desired big break. Musicians should pay attention to the legal aspect of what they do because one copyright infringement case can cause huge fallout.”
Spending Like There’s No Tomorrow
There is also the issue of unbridled and prodigious disposal of financial resources on frivolities by artistes. Media personality, Temitope Duker offered that many artistes have emptied out their bank accounts and have nothing to show for it but a few boxes of Cds and T-shirts in their closets.
Her words: “When most musicians get to the peak of their career; they get a bit excited and begin to live beyond life itself; they spend so much money on things that don’t matter. A lot of them do not live for the future, forgetting that there is a lifespan for their career.”
What Artistes Sing?
DJ Benji also added that the lyrical depth and focus of a musician may also play a role in sustenance. This, according to him is not just because fans have different musical tastes but also because there are regulatory authorities monitoring air play for songs containing sexualized themes, profane languages, reference to drugs and violence.
“Abroad, artistes would do songs that contain nude lyrics but have radio edits but Nigerian artistes are lazy. They do not have radio edit, it is the DJ that will help them to remove those profane words. If you keep on signing songs like these, you won’t last long. It might work for you at the beginning of your career but it will fade out eventually,” he explained.
What Every Artiste Must Know
All said and done though, there are times when luck just plays the hard one on artistes.
According to Omorogbe, who has literarily seen it all in the music business, “Sometimes it is not any body’s fault. The music business is cannibalistic. Every 12 to 18 months the audience is looking for something different and new. It is the nature of music business particularly, pop music business. That’s why some people use the word bubble gum to describe music. After chewing gum, for the first few minutes you’ll enjoy the taste. After a while you’ll notice you’re just chewing something that is tasteless. So you want to throw it out and chew another bubble gum.
“It is a global one, so artistes are here today and gone tomorrow. The act of survival and longevity depends on the fans and the trend. So, if an artiste does not have the right management that can work with them, guide them in the right direction, to ensure that they are always on top of your game, and control some of the destructive habits that people tend to pick up when they are popular, and if artistes do not choose to listen to their team or management, they’re likely going to self-destruct.”