Singer Paul Okoye, known as Rudeboy and one half of the duo P-Square, has said social media has eroded the prestige and mystery that once surrounded musicians, leaving fans less awestruck and artists overexposed.
Okoye argued that constant online visibility has made music videos largely a waste of money and has dulled the dramatic fan reactions of earlier eras.
“Music videos somehow now, because of this generation, is a waste of money. I am sorry to say this,” he said. “But do you remember us [P-Square] before? You don’t see us anywhere. You just watch music videos, you see us and that’s it, or we come to your country, you see us.”
“Nobody would faint”
He tied the decline in fan hysteria to the daily presence of artists on platforms such as TikTok.
“The reason you don’t see people faint for artistes anymore is because they see them on TikTok every day dancing and promoting your music. If Michael Jackson was alive now and doing promotional content on social media, nobody would see him and faint,” Okoye said.
“Too late”
The singer said the era of the untouchable star could not be revived.
“Unfortunately, it’s too late for us to bring back the era of artistes being mystiques. How can you advise an artiste to post every day? How? Post what? You don’t need to,” he said.
“See-finish”
Okoye acknowledged that social media had brought benefits, but said it had also produced what Nigerians call “see-finish”, meaning overexposure.
“Social media brought positive change to the industry but it also led to ‘see-finish.’ Artistes are now too exposed. Fans see how they eat, cry. Before when artistes go to club, they stay in restricted VIP areas, but now when they are clubbing, everyone is filming,” he said.
