The Golden Band maestro, Mesach Semakula, is concerned about the increasing use of profanities in the music industry. He believes electronic media houses, especially radio stations, are primarily responsible for this negative trend. Semakula, during his appearance on CBS radio, expressed his dismay at upcoming artists who prioritize hits and quick money over meaningful music.
“It is sad; our music is growing on the one hand but also being destroyed on the other,” he said. He lamented that the current focus is on making hits rather than creating songs with meaningful messages. “It was a question of, does it have a message, is it touching someone?” he added.
Mesach Semakula contrasted Uganda’s modern music with that of 10 to 20 years ago, which was heavily regulated by radio stations. He recalled how his songs were once rejected for sounding vulgar. “We used to bring our music to the radio station, and if they picked even the slightest semblance of a bad word or profanity, they would drop the song,” he recounted.
An example he gave was of his song ‘Tukwegomba bangi.’ “The chorus had the line, ‘kino kitwale nti kunyamba.’ The person on the radio told me that word doesn’t sound right, we are not going to put it on the radio, and I was forced to go back and change the lyrics to ‘kyaama,’” he shared.
Semakula is worried how radios now welcome poor quality songs “Someone brings a song to the radio, and in the song, they talk about body parts found on children and parents. All radios are giving it airplay and celebrating it. This is wrong!” he exclaimed.
