𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The “support your own” has probably been the most abused phrase in the Cameroon Entertainment Industry for quite some time now, if you will have to voice it out or inscribe on a social media post, be ready to get castigated or slap fit follow. A good number of people hide behind the phrase in need of favors and often use it as a free to ticket for guaranteed help, the action is now redundant hence rendering the whole strategy futile and boring. Practically support your own is a concept far fetched in terms of helping because our industry understands this in three noticeable ways.
𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝘼𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮
It’s like supporting what I relate with, a profound natural likeness for an artist’s arts over another based on personal preferences. We get that a lot in the industry from bloggers, promoters, influencers, TV hosts, Media figures and a great number of personalities interwoven in showbiz related matters. This kind of support comes naturally and grows personal when there are sentimental attachments nurtured by connectivity and interactivity. Most often, the artists [Musicians, Actors, models, designers, artists] who don’t fall in that space feel left out which may affect their careers in one way or the other drastically.
𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮
This is the most common form of support the Industry witnesses on a daily. It incorporates bias, tribalism and to an extend discrimination. In as much as we try not to admit this support system is primarily backbone by tribalism attachments or culture identification.A case study and survey has stipulated : The Nso community in the industry has proven beyond doubts their own will always come first before the rest can follow in terms of support both online and offline. This kind of support involves all categories of showbiz audience [The emitter, perceivers, opinion leaders ]
𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡
This kind of support is more dangerous than the other support systems because it encompasses a lot of other aspects, 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅, 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘆, 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻. This type support is very common among our musicians and celebrities on this platform. A lot demonstrate fake love so as to bypass backlashes from fans and the media, I support your arts so you intend support mine, I support your arts because you just got recognized for an award [stepping in to say congratulations so not to feel inferior when I couldn’t share your arts/works before the nomination] that’s why strangers support you more than people you know because the people you know might have a tough time accepting you come from the same place, but they are still in the same place.
𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙎𝙐𝙋𝙋𝙊𝙍𝙏 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙊𝙒𝙉 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮.
After highlighting the three different categories of the support your own concept, it will be difficult to mobilize people to change their narratives and perspective about what they consume musically or direct their energy to. In depth analysis with a logical eye will allow you with the thought that support your own local music or arts doesn’t make sense. If we look at things critically Cameroonians have been consuming home made music and a larger faction in recent times have given much value to arts produced here, but obviously there’s something still lacking. Living in the digital era where things have been made easier in terms of content sharing and accessibility, what our content creators [Musicians and actors] need to do more is do a feasibility study together with their management teams and see how to push and promote their songs and music pieces outside Cameroon.
Musically our lyrical content has been kept within the frontiers of Cameroon and can’t really breakthrough to penetrate the Entertainment sphere of our neighboring countries and beyond. Until these persons are ready to make these changes by either creating new strategies, innovating old ones or a total disruption in their music promotion strategies ,they will keep doing music for home base consumption without realizing and continue to rely on SUPPORT YOUR OWN for an ultimate exposure breakthrough. Looking at it from a deeper perspective Support your own does not make sense, if the industry as a whole realizes the need to give value and respect to technical personnel it will be another generational plague ,it’s not about the ratio or population because if you have to critically look at it, we have been supporting our own all this while.
One of the principal problems that lies central to this unending music war fare is; 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁.Back to memory lane when Salatiel was picked up to feature in Beyonce’s Lion King Album and a cross section of Nigerian blogs omitted Salatiel’s name in their articles and blog posts, this eventually sparked a lot of controversies as well as instigated the conscious effort by some industry players to curb the influx of Nigerian songs on the shores of Cameroon. Cameroon has nothing more to prove to the world musically that we are relevant and consistent, what we need to do more is get out of our comfort zones, work on the song promotions, digitalize our moves via branding and partnerships. This is the actual truth after having been approached by some Nigerian Industry music media players, their answers were simple “Your own doesn’t support your own because they don’t network and widen their scope of influence
” Support your own, support our own ! but how do we support our own when our own don’t support the course by supporting themselves?