Once a-porn a song

In today's chequered music industry, which has bore the brunt of COVID-19, through cancelled music shows and concerts, salacious and sexually suggestive music videos have become the in-thing. 

The videos are, for many Ugandan musicians and rappers, a means to an end; their one-way ticket to gaining popularity, in an industry notoriously easy to break into, but hard to sustain in terms of maintaining relevance.

And you can bet, music videos with musicians and their backup dancers in skintight crop tops and provocative lingerie, engaging in objectifying dance moves, sexual gestures, poses, and facial expressions and on occasion, bare-chested chiselled muscle men, have done rounds during the lockdown.

"As in the Western world music industry, many of Uganda's established and upcoming musicians contend that sexualised videos are the most effective tool to market their music," Arnold Muduni, CEO and music producer at KYA studios in Bweyogerere, says.

And through the years, an increasingly liberalised society has acted as an enabler of sexualised content in music videos and other popular attractions in Kampala, such as standup comedy personified by the likes of MC Mariachi, MC Kapale and Amooti, among others.

"Currently in Uganda, 45-60% of music videos come with some vestige of sexuality. Artistes inclined to sexual imagery in their videos have also been galvanised by a seemingly ineffectual anti-pornography law, which prohibits the exposing of body parts deemed sexual or sexually exciting," Andrew Kityo, a music critic, says.

Kityo is not entirely right as people like Panadol Wa Basajja and Ssenga Nantume have been apprehended for peddling pornographic content before.

Uganda's anti-pornography law was passed by the Ugandan Parliament in 2014.

"The partiality of the media and artistes' fans regarding steamy videos; and lessened pressure from firebrand moralists such as Father Simon Lokodo and Pastor Martin Ssempa, mean that artistes have more or less become a law unto themselves as regards this issue."

Many trending Ugandan music videos from established artistes such as Winnie Nwagi, Iryn Namubiru, Fik Fameica, Cindy Sanyu, John Blaq, Spice Diana, Bebe Cool, Sheebah and several upcoming musicians contain substantial proportions of sexual content.

For reference, check out live performance video clips of Cindy Sanyu or check out videos such as Timaya by newcomer Prince Omar. For You by Winne Nwagi, Pomini by Ziza Bafana and Sitoma by Spice Diana, among others, are also heavily sexualised.

"The men who hold sway in the music video making business and who write most of the video scripts always rationalise that sexual imagery is vital if a video is to sell or if it is to go viral on social media sites, which are another great marketing platform," Joseph Batte, a music critic points out.

Progressively too, song lyrics have gotten a tad sexual. The subtle and veiled sexual references and metaphors in songs such as Go Down Low, Ice Cream, Ekitone Nkwatako and Farmer by Sheebah; and Wire Wire by Bebe Cool, among others, speaks to that point. 

The lyrical sexual innuendos do not, however, cause as much a palaver as the videos do. 

While not all contemporary Ugandan musicians bank on the sexualised videos template, there is no denying that it is now part of the Ugandan music character.

Some music pundits, however, argue that the blueprint is a blot on the Ugandan musical landscape.

"Some of the videos are outright debauchery. I am not partial to media that commodifies female bodies and spoils children. I Corinthians 15:13 sums it up well: "Evil communications corrupt good manners. Need I say more? Children and teenagers imitate what they see and as you know, the lockdown has been a time of TV binge-watching and unlimited social media usage," Mbale based evangelist Gideon Wananda, says.

Baker Nasoma, a retired banker, farmer and music enthusiast, says the leeway given to today's musicians putting out music videos with overt depictions of sexuality, needs to be checked.

"The ostrich approach in dealing with controversies and wrongs is what has let this country down. Nobody is disputing that the videos are entertainment. They are, but if they are going to influence the morals of the young, they ought to be regulated with some tough legislation as they did in Tanzania and Kenya by banning the 2016 Zigo video by Diamond Platnumz and 2015's Nishike video by Sauti Sol. A video does not have to be inappropriate and mortifying to sell."

"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. I am not the type to tolerate my children being exposed to the sexualised content, so I would join Father Lokodo or Pastor Ssempa with haste any day if they start any campaigns against this depravity," Nzoma says.

And speaking of legislation, the only Ugandan musician to ever face litigation for a raunchy music video was Jemimah Kansiime, also known as Panadol Wa Basajja. Her infamous music video for the song, Ensolo Yange, was banned in 2015.

More recently, Winnie Nwagi and her management team were compelled to apologise to the Parliament's antipornography committee after a video emerged of her and her back up dancers engaging students at St Mary's College Kisubi in rub-a-dub dances.

"That was only last year. On a bad day, that performance could have landed Nwagi in jail. Occasionally, however, you have to give some of the musicians, the benefit of doubt. They are as we all are, products of an infamous dog-eat-dog environment, where people have to, at times, go against the grain to survive," legendary musician Frank Mbalire says.

In copywriter Godwin Uringi's contention, there is no accounting for taste when it comes to music videos.

"For some people, it is socially conscious music videos with their clean lyrics and dance moves that strike a chord; while for some, it is the happy-go-lucky music videos with their derivatives that fascinate. If you ask each fan of the above videos; they will all give contrasting reasons as to why they are partial to them."

"The fact is that sex appeal sells music. The more sexualised content there is, the more attention a product or music video gets," Uringi argues.

John Kasajja, a book publisher, says there is a need to place parental advisory warning labels or straplines at the bottom of TV screens when sexually explicit videos are playing on TV.

"Music videos with eroticised dances need to have warnings on them. Another unfortunate bit about them is that they reinforce negative sexual stereotypes about women and men," he says.

In the US

In the Western world, contemporary enablers of sexualised music videos in the past two decades have, for the most part, been post-feminist notions of female empowerment and sexual liberation; personified by big musical names such as Miles Cyrus, who at some point was accused of marketing the objectification of women. 

Others are Beyoncé Knowles, Janelle Monae, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B.

For starters, the post feminists strive for the equality of all genders. Janelle Monae and Beyonce, who, by all accounts, brought feminism into the mainstream, have rationalised that female sexual imagery signals power.

Beyoncé, in many ways, is the poster child for postfeminism, with music videos such as Formation, which was at one point in the cross hairs of critics who accused her of displaying her sexuality for the male gaze. But she is never one to take any sort of blowback quietly; so she shot back. 

By all accounts, sexual imagery in most popular western music videos projects a new wave of feminism. 

In Uganda, our very own Sheebah Karungi seems to have fully tapped into it. Her music videos attest to it.