奈及利亞流行音樂中的暴力問題研究

Violence and Popular Music in Nigeria

在奈及利亞，青年音樂文化相對來說是一種新的現象。然而，嘻哈和饒舌音樂的崛起，對於其他目標同為年輕人族群的流行音樂類別而言，是可能帶來威脅的。青年流行音樂對於成年的奈及利亞人來說看似無害，但卻可能含有煽動或激發暴力的潛在因素。以音樂能呈現出作曲家及消費者的心態為前提，為了找出這個此一音樂新潮流是否為社會和特定年輕族群帶來暴力影響，本文請一群青年為內容傾向暴力的流行音樂作出量化評估。大學生撰寫的文章指出，青年流行音樂裡的歌名、歌詞、節奏、故事和影音的呈現，除了涵蓋暴力因素，還引發消費者之侵略性行為。透過了解造成潛在暴力的原因和掌控引發暴力的情勢，社會暴力可以控制；要達成目的，社群生活、周遭事物、溝通和語言使用的種種面向均需要受到檢視。本文對暴力音樂的研究結果顯示，透過青年接受，藝術家們著實能藉著音樂影響消費者的行為。

Youth music culture is relatively a new phenomenon in Nigeria, but the rise of hip hop/rap threatens the survival of other genres of popular music targeted at youth audience, such as rhythm and blues (R&B), reggae, afro-beat and yo-pop. Innocuous as youth music may seem to adult Nigerians, it may contain elements with potential to provoke or aggravate violence. To determine what this newly discovered culture could reveal about violence in the system, and particularly among youth, a group of youth were asked to assess popular music with bias to violence. The premise is that music could reveal the mindset of its composers and consumers. In a descriptive study, essays written by undergraduate students were analyzed to ascertain whether youth music contains elements of violence in title, lyric, beat, narrative and video presentation; and whether violent music elicits aggression from the consumers. Violence in society can be restrained by taking cognizance of potential causes of violence, and managing situations that can engender violence. This can be done by examining various aspects of community life, events, communication and language use. This study of music violence reveals that artistes, by being accepted by their youth audience, do influence their consumers' behaviours through their music.