I've been wanting to blog about this issue for almost 2months now but I've been annoyingly lazy about it,until i saw a tweet this morning that said 'You don't have haters, just people who don't agree with you' and the light bulb just turned on in my head,so here i am.
I told a friend sometime ago that the most tossed around word in 2011 has to be 'HATER'. It's very easy to label someone a hater nowadays;just say you don't like an artiste's song on Twitter, Bella Naija, Linda Ikeji, 360Nobs etc and you're christened 'hater' immediately. There was a time we were free to criticize, there was a time we could easily tell others what we liked and didn't like,there was a time we didn't have to like what others loved.... Things are obviously different now i guess (now that we have blogs/twitter/facebook etc).
If you don't like an artist's song - YOU'RE (OBVIOUSLY) A HATER!
If you don't like that designer's collection - YOU'RE JUST A CHEAP,BLIND,HATER!
If you don't like that actor's acting - H.A.T.E.RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
If you don't like an article - GO WRITE YOURS......HATERRRRRRRR
It's imperative for us to realize that we all can't like the same thing, variety they say is the spice of life. For the fact that i don't like a work of art doesn't mean i dislike the artist and what if i dislike the artist? Don't i have a right to dislike someone? People dislike me too,so what? Besides, you disliking an artiste doesn't affect his fan-base,doesn't affect his bank account and it doesn't even affect the price of fish!
I woke up very early one morning only for me to be subjected to 'hate-tweets' from a popular artist directed at his 'haters'; 'You jobless haters,what have you done with your life' bleh bleh...Unfortunately,this is an artiste i happen to 'love' and i asked myself, Nike,you honestly don't have to put yourself through this,what in the devil's name is the meaning of this,this early momo?
I'm not saying we don't have people who leave hateful comments on blogs,I'm not saying some 'criticisms' are not harsh,but my point is this, not everyone who says he/she doesn't like an art is a hater. That word has been bandied about carelessly for too long. Let us be more tolerant of each other, we need to respect our views/opinions more. The way some people go all out at you all cause you don't like an art is just plain childish. You listen to a song and you just don't 'feel' it,I think you should be able to drop your comment but now we're not free to do so. That's why we have so many mediocre songs and artistes out there claiming to be very great. That's because they are surrounded by people who tell them everyday that their work is the best thing after sliced bread. Those who know the work is just plain rubbish or still needs to be worked on are labelled 'haters'. We honestly need to grow past this.
Some of our celebrities can't survive abroad because that's an environment where they criticize their celebrities for a living. Radio/TV hosts, print media criticize them easily (well down here, radio and TV hosts are very good friends with them so there's a huge ton of bias)
As an artist,especially in our present day Nigeria,a lot of people love you;i can tell you that for free (we've lowered our music/art taste(s) to accommodate a lot of you),so please concentrate on those people that love you and forget about the 'haters',in fact you waste too much time on them. But try educate your fans to be more tolerant of those who don't find your work amazing.
I leave you with this line "One man's joy is another man's nightmare". Or am i a hater too????? LOL
*now dancing to Ajasa featuring 9ice - Le Fenu So*
Thanks for reading!!!!!!!
