The upsurge of television stations has led to the thriving of music videos production in Malawi such that a week hardly relapses without major premieres of locally produced visuals on one content provider or the other.
Quality of the videos aired has given rise to another hot debate among Malawians on whether there is an improvement or a degradation.
The war of arguments comes in the wake of an alarming increase in number of music videos released in the present day.
While some visuals have been eulogised for their quality, others have been mercilessly crushed for below par standards.
However a greater percentage believe Malawi’s music videos are going in the right direction claiming there is an undeniable improvement.
Renowned videographer, Sukez of HD creations concurs with those that have a positive view in as far as quality of Malawi music videos is concerned.
He says music videos have improved a great deal but admits that there is an increase in poor delivery due to the numerical increase in cameras and television stations.
“Music videos have improved a lot, and as we know when things are too much, there is always an increase in poor delivery but still some good videos stand out,” says Sukez.
On the other hand he supports the idea of having more cameras as it has impacted on television content in Malawi, in a way that music videos are in the meantime contributing to about 50 percent of their content.
The introduction of High Definition (HD) Cameras in Malawi, is considered to have had a major boost towards music videos. People have mainly linked this factor to quality visuals while overlooking the negatives that have followed.
Musician Georgiz Nyale of the K2B Block group who is also a videographer, argues that HD Cameras make people who own them to venture into music video production just because they have the materials. As a result, he says, there is evidently lack of creativity in most music videos.
He said: “Everyone who owns an HD Camera thinks they are videographers, as a result less budgeted videos are being released on daily basis which is jeopardizing creativity.”
However Georgiz recognises the positive impact brought by the cameras in question.
He says they have taken the local music videos production to greater heights after years of relying on cameras with a low number pixels.
It is now a norm to shoot videos in HD cameras among local artists as they strive to penetrate the international platforms that can only be achieved with quality.
So far only two Malawian artists, Tay Grin and Zani Challe have their music videos enjoying airplay on continental platforms. Both visuals were produced outside the country, which is said to have undermined the domestic industry.
Arts reporter at Times newspaper, Sam Banda Junior, is among those who believe there is an improvement in local music videos.
He says: “Much as some music videos leave a lot to be desired, there is surely an improvement, many artists are producing good music videos.”
Responding to the question on whether there should be laws to control the influx of music videos which has been influenced by the introduction of many television stations, Banda firstly supports the idea of having many platforms but goes on to argue that television stations should put in place measures that will determine videos fit and not fit for airplay.
Sukez, and Georgiz share Banda’s view basing their position on the claim that creativity cannot be controlled but television stations should play videos with good quality based on their desired criteria.
Although only Tay Grin’s Chipapapa which features Nigeria’s 2baba, and Zani Challe’s Single tonight that features another Nigerian artist, Patoranking, happens to be the only videos enjoying airplay internationally, Sukez believes some locally produced videos qualify for the international content providers.
He believes they can sell out if the artists employ good marketing strategies.
