Music and political identity salience in Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the nexus between musical taste and political identity salience, and how (if at all) that informs citizens’ own perception and performance of national (cultural) identity in Nigeria. It specifically interrogates the extent to which Nigerians signalled political affiliations and identities in the sonic and textual references of selected 2023 presidential election campaign songs. Following a synthesis of the discourse on political and cultural identity, Nigerian musical arts and culture, and with specific analytical reference to three preselected election campaign songs, we demonstrate that, beyond party ideology, campaign promises, money, and literacy level, Nigeria’s voting public activate and perform political identity salience when messages and objects of cultural and socio-political value align and are communicated in song.

KEYWORDS:

• Musical taste
• political identity salience
• Nigerian musical arts
• campaign songs
• cultural identity; OBI-dients

Acknowledgements

We are thankful for the thoughtful comments and suggestions received from the anonymous peer reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The geographical area known as modern Nigeria was never a single cultural entity. The more than 300 major ethnic groups have been correctly described as different sub-cultures, which, throughout the years, have coalesced into a smaller number of culture areas. Whereas northern Nigeria developed and preserved contact with Arab traders and Islamic preachers, southern Nigeria was deeply influenced by trade and cultural relations with European missionaries and merchants. For more, see Falola (1999).

2. Listen to it here. https://youtu.be/Bp0auz2Q2lE.

3. For more on Ogene, see for example, Nzewi (2000).

4. Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7he-XNJ6U.

5. Listen to it here. https://youtu.be/r3bjt7Nnp8g.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this work by the author(s).