Reasons Why Gospel Artiste Quit For Secular Music

Gospel Music is one of the most popular genres of music. Aside its popularity, it still has less listeners in country like Nigeria. It is believed in Nigeria that Only Christians listen to Gospel Songs and yet, it is very sad to see some so Christian listening to and promote secular music instead of promoting their own songs (the more listeners a genre of music gets, the more people want to listen to it)

This has posed a lot of threats at Gospel Artiste/Musician who had passion for this career. I have seen a lot of talented Gospel Artiste/Musician who quit Gospel Songs for hip hop/secular songs for a reason or the other which I think is right to some extent because they can’t take all the blame.

Based on my research and of all the reasons given by those who quit Gospel Music for Hip Hop, I have compiled these reasons below:

1. LITTLE OR NO SUPORT:

Support is needed in whatever you want to do or you are doing. Without support from the people around you, it would be difficult for you to survive. We (Christians) can support Gospel Artiste/Musician by listening to their songs, giving them motivation and advices and most especially financial support.

I once told one of my friend (who is a Christian brother like me) that I want to start my career as a Gospel Rapper, he laughed at me, but I knew that was what I was going to get from him anyway but I didn’t give up because I am always self-motivated.

I think it’s time we (Christians) start supporting our own brothers and sisters who are Gospel Artiste, churches too can invest or build studios for free productions of their songs. This would help Gospel Music development in Nigeria a lot.

2. FAMILIARITY:

A lot of people either both Christians and non-Christians are not familiar with Gospel Music. You can do this survey yourself by checking the most played songs on your friends phone, you will discover that 80% of your friends (including Christians) played Gospel Music lesser than Hip Hop/Secular songs on their phones.

Nathaniel Bassey, the popular Gospel Musician took to his twitter page some weeks ago that “Christians love gospel music until it’s a wedding”, even I have noticed this myself, Christians when celebrating their wedding would hire DJs who would play Hip-Hop/Secular Songs throughout the ceremony.

Looks like we (Christians) are killing Gospel Music ourselves.

3. GAIN/PROFIT:

Gone are the days when artistes sing for passion or the love of it, nowadays every artiste are full time singers with no other side hustles, they only depend on the income they get from performing of throwing a concert for living which earns them a lot of money.

Gospel Artiste on the other hand earn less than expected, this take tolls especially on upcoming Gospel Musicians they need money for their music production, promotion and upkeep. Even when they are invited for local shows they get token amount of money for their performance or no money at all because those who invited them believed they are “DOING IT FOR GOD”.

They forget that God gave talent to every man for them to survive, so since these young and coming Gospel Artistes can’t cope with the situation, they quit Gospel Songs for Hip-Hop/Secular music to get what they want.

4. COMMITMENT:

As a Gospel Artiste, one has to be committed to being a Christian and has to live his/her life according to the word of God which is the Holy Bible. Gospel Musicians sing praises to God, so they shouldn’t be defiled by the things of this world like Partying, Fornicating, Smoking, Drug Abuse etc.

Most Up and Coming Gospel Artiste don’t want to miss that part, they want to enjoy their time to the fullest and the only thing that could hinder them from doing so is their commitment to God and their career, so they quit being a Gospel Artiste to become Hip-Hop Singers.

5. AWARD WINNING EVENTS:

Hip-Hop/Secular Music in Nigeria has been graced with many awards as NMA, NEA, HEADIES and so forth. These events are put in place to commend the artistes who are already in the industry and to motivate the up and coming artiste by giving out “Most promising act of the year award or Upcoming Artiste of the year award”.

There is nothing as this for Gospel Music as a whole in Nigeria, No gospel music based award and this is unhealthy for Gospel Music industry. I think Gospel Musicians in Nigeria should come together to think of this because if this could happen, many upcoming gospel artiste would be motivated to stay on the path of the career they chose.

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