How to Make Hit Songs in Nigeria
As an Afrobeats artiste, your relevance in the game is dependent on the number of Smash singles and the club-bangers you have put out over time and lately.
Nobody cares if you are a legend or not. As long as your current projects are not appealing to the Gen-Z, bro, you are already out of the discussion.
Against this backdrop, Wande Coal named his fourth studio album “Legend or No Legend” [you have to record songs that will resonate with the present generation.
Recording a hit song is not difficult, but you must pay the price. Yes, hit songs come with prices.
How to Make Hit Songs
Whether you are a retired cat, aged cat, old cat, new cat, or an underdog, here are the things you must take into consideration while setting out to make hits:
1. Make the Hook, Chorus, or the Entire Song Simple and Easy to Memorize
The generation of 2baba, Psquare, D’banj, and 9ice banked I’m songs that were lyrically built, but the Gen-Z vibe to songs with fewer but catchy lyrics.
2baba’s “African Queen” was a hit in the early 2000s and is still evergreen, but if an artiste hits the studio in 2024 with such a musical approach, he or she will end up recording philosophical tunes that should be kept in the archive.
If you want to make hits nowadays, try and keep your diction simple, keep your choruses and verses short and simple. Use fewer words, and if possible, recycle the title of the song in the hook.
This economy of words is best experimented by Kizz Daniel. This guy is good at this, and bro makes hits effortlessly. Songs like “Buga”, “Twe Twe”, “Shuperu”, “My Gee”, are clear instances of an artiste using simpler and fewer words at the hook level to create wonders.
Other artistes in this category are Shallipopi in “E Don Cast”, Timaya in “Gra Gra”, Phyno in “Do I”, Spyro in “Who is Your Guy”, etc.
Wordy choruses in songs are no longer working out, and that was why Iyanya’s “Once Upon a Cat” album is still unpopular despite the artiste’s penmanship; that is also why Peruzzi’s projects are not getting the attention they truly deserve.
2. Feature a Trending Artiste, Not an A-list or Big Artiste
There is a difference between a big artiste and a trending artiste. While the former might give you a good song, the latter will give you a hit song.
Not all trending artiste are big artistes and not all big artistes are currently trending. 2baba, Psquare, Timaya, MI, Banky, Wande Coal, Wizkid, and Tiwa Savage are all big artistes but Burna Boy, Davido, Asake, Rema, Odumodublvck, Shallipopi, Blaqbonez and Seyi Vibez are the trending ones.
A collabo with the first set of artistes might give you something you can always listen to in the next five years, but a joint with the guys in the next category is an instant hit.
What do you want? An evergreen song with low streams like the ones often done by Brymo or a hit that will not stand the test of time, yet offering you massive cash out? Choose wisely, but make sure you make hits to sustain your family.
There are so many ways of recording hit songs but the two discussed above are truly the most accessible. However, do not forget the power of money. You need money for promotion.
No matter how good a song might be, you still need to give it some financial push.
What have you learned from the discourse? Let’s get your opinions in the comment section.
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