We are all faced with this thought at some point in our music listening journey. Most times we do not really want to even know the content of a song that has the appearance of Christ before we jump into conclusion of listening to it on probably just Sundays or at the start of the day in the morning
We have put together seven issues that we and many listeners think make listeners decide if it’s gospel crap or not (We are putting on a listener’s hat)
1. Street Credibility of the artiste
Once we do not know this artiste, forget it. The first thing that comes to our mind is “who is this guy/girl tryna be a superstar? Okay let’s take a chill pill and see what he/she’s got.” Artistes need to invest in building their credibility. Artistes should find something that they would be known for. We have the likes of Social Club (Misfit Gang, Misfits), Lecrae and Crew (116), Bizzle (God Over Money), Sevin (HOGMOB – Hooked On God Ministry Over Business), 4Runner (Neonite), KB (HGA-His Glory Alone) and Swoope (WLAK- We live as Kings), amongst others.
2. The Production
As an artiste, your production carries great weight. Your instrumentals should be top notch and should be able to give space to your vocals to be able to pass across the message. The mix of your songs has to be professional. You should try to spend some few bucks on getting a professional mix and mastering job. “You don’t want to push out songs that we are ashamed of showing our friends”, rightly said by Social Club. We are in a world dominated by ungodly music, and if you really want to make that mark, you have to give it your best shot, and that best shot better be good enough.
3. The Presentation
When you see the bio of an artiste and you come across statements like “Fastest rising rapper”, “hot new single” , “best rapper” , most of these statements water down the song before the songs are even listened to or downloaded. Artistes should be conscious of the presentation of their bio on various media platforms.
4. The Art
One highly underrated element is the design of your album art or single art. As an artiste, your art design should be able to communicate what your song is about. Your art should receive attention to detail from you. Even if it’s your picture that’s on the art, it should be able to speak some few things about the release. Please spend some few bucks on getting quality art designs and change the mindset of I’m a one man army– from production and recording your vocals to designing your art.
5. The Artiste Name
Your name is very important as an artiste, it is your identity, and you want a simple name people can easily relate with. You don’t want a sentence called a name. In most cases your birth name is a preferable option.
6. Content
It is really important and necessary to give praises to Christ. Your music as an artiste should not be just about giving praises to God. Dear artiste, your listeners do that easily with the likes of Marvin Sapp, Sonnie Badu, Hezekiah Walker, Frank Edwards, Uche Agu etc. Your music should also contain messages that speak directly to people, points that people can relate with in their daily Christian walk. Most Importantly, you should not be afraid to speak the truth in your music.
7. Price Tag
Really, the community is trying to know and love your music and there you go putting a price tag on your music. We are not saying you should not eventually sell your albums, but you should do it at the right time. Yes, you put in a lot of resources into making your music/ album, but those are part of the sacrifices you should prepare to make as a Christian artiste. Put out some free songs or projects that people will love before you put up your songs or projects for sale. Consider having a listening session where people can preview your songs. This helps a lot in convincing people to spend money on your album. When people love your music, they will not think too deep to consider buying your music. Would you release a video and put a price tag on it? The essence of releasing a video is for people to see the video and be able to relate with the song, so, imagine putting a price tag on your video.
Are there more that you want to be included in this. Please let us know by adding your comments.
1 Comment