Testing the Waters and Using a Viral Video

In the world of Business & Accounting, there are similar terminologies like Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Return on Capital Employed. All may have distinctive definitions but will surely have something relative in common known as Investment. Which is simply the returns/profits/benefits you get, from the intentional willingness to take-on or guide through, the developmental stages of any Project/Business-Enterprise.

Now, in the world of Entertainment & Music; there is the risk of creating content, that appeals to the recreational or guilty pleasures of consumers, and the uncertainty of having to accept the fact, that the details of this content may, or may not appeal to this consuming public. Nonetheless the best part of this environs, is that once such thing should get accepted, it could change the live of the creative individual forever, in the best of ways. A major example, is the impact of what the creation of Facebook, did to the vastly known youngest billionaire around; Mark Zukerberg. We focus here on the Music, and a lot has changed with how the music is made available by content providers; with the new age of Technological advancements & Social Media. As it has allowed the new generation of artistes, to look through an easier route in producing the would be Hit-Records with the intention of laying a mark within the legacy set forth, by the legends before them.

The route here, is taking the pathway to success of their content, by using a Viral Video and capitalizing on the would-be success of such videos. Which in all honesty has a little risk involved, as it allows the recording musicians to test the waters and strategize, on how to properly roll out the Music-single properly, and have a win-win situation, by taking notes of the purposeful positive permutations, that the viral videos bring. Recent examples in the last one year, will be the impact that the lesser known English rapper & comedian, Michael Dapaah had with the portrayal of his road rapper character Big Shaq. Already known for garnering major social media following, with his instantaneous comedy sketches which he adapted into a series and gained over a million views on YouTube. His big break struck came, when He appeared on Charlie Sloth’s BBC Radio 1Xtra show ‘Fire in the booth’ when he live-performed his comedic rap ‘Man’s not hot’ which went viral and saw Michael Dapaah drop a fully recorded Track version of the song, which gathered so much cult followership and out rightly, the phrase ‘Man’s not Hot’ became the most common statement used in Pop Culture in 2017. And could arguably be the biggest song in the world of 2017. And prompted Michael Dapaah who is originally of Ghanaian descent, to headline a major concert last Christmas, in Nigeria. He might not have envisioned the Whole impact of a song by him, initially during his rap career, but that viral video changed his life Forever! and greatly establishes the factual purpose of what a viral video can do.

Another example will be on the veteran Nollywood Actor turned rapper Charles Okocha and his Amoshine viral video on Instagram. This added much needed points to this once forgotten Actor, as he has since, been accepted in the creative space, with the consuming public wanting to hear his fully recorded songs, just for the fun of it. A most recent impact of a viral video will be the emergence of Teniola Apata, aka Teni Makanaki, who was once known, for delivering acapella performances of her favorite songs and adding her own twist/remixes to it. To also acting on her various comedy skits. The once unknown fast rising singer & Songwriter then proceeded to dropping her own Fuji inspired version to a major song of the 80’s era and speak about sexual harassment on young girls, which she packaged into a 1minute video and was once the biggest video on Nigerian Twitter. As it appealed to the social consciousness of the Nigerian public. Noticing the impact that of viral video, she decided to record a studio track to this viral video and tag it as Fargin (Virgin) which was produced by the Nigerian producer Mystro. This record had the same significant lyrics and composition of her popular internet video, and obviously did very well in the industry and gained Teni a lot of fans as it eventually got her the record deal, she needed to kick start her music career and most impressively got her a nod at the just concluded Headies Awards, which she eventually went home with the Rookie of the year award for 2017.

The Internet & Social Media may have some bad sides to it, but it has given us the pleasure for giving an unintentional chance for the hardworking creatives to share their talent on the world stages and beyond; could be regarded as the easiest way out in the industry. As in Nigeria, which there is no major structure available in our entertainment industry, The Era of viral videos in gradually developing our future music Superstars, has cut down the initial costs of major-stakeholders who are willing to invest in musical talents, as the “Returns” on taking on the “Risk” of signing a talent is guaranteed on a paper before getting on such Projects.