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Affective Capital: Lagos and Nigerian Music Videos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2022

Femi Eromosele Open the ORCID record for Femi Eromosele [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Lagos is a recurrent theme in Nigerian music videos. Eromosele examines this phenomenon in relation to the objectives of the music video and the musician’s star image. Various studies involving emotion and forms of capital help to reveal how Lagos is appropriated into the iconography of music stars in ways that extend the city’s affective capital while serving the promotional aims of the music video. Capital is viewed chiefly as value accumulated through circulation and capable of being transubstantiated into different forms. The economic and political prominence of Lagos influences and is fed by the city’s affective power.

Résumé

Résumé

Lagos est un thème récurrent dans les clips musicaux nigérians. Eromosele examine ce phénomène en relation avec les objectifs du clip et l’image vedette du musicien. Diverses études impliquant l’émotion et les types de capital aident à révéler comment Lagos est appropriée dans l’iconographie des stars de la musique de manière à étendre la capitale affective de la ville tout en servant les objectifs promotionnels du clip vidéo. Le capital est considéré principalement comme une valeur accumulée par la circulation et susceptible d’être transsubstantiée sous différentes formes. Le pouvoir affectif de la ville alimente la proéminence économique et politique des influences de Lagos.

Resumo

Resumo

A cidade de Lagos é um tema recorrente dos videoclipes musicais nigerianos. Eromosele analisa este fenómeno e a sua relação com os objetivos dos videoclipes de música e da imagem das celebridades musicais. Diversos estudos dedicados às emoções e às expressões capitalistas ajudam a a revelar o modo como Lagos se integrou na iconografia das celebridades da música de maneiras que extravasam o capital afetivo da cidade, ao mesmo tempo que servem os propósitos promocionais dos videoclipes musicais. O capital é primordialmente visto como o valor acumulado através da circulação e passível de se transubstanciar em diferentes formatos. A preeminência de Lagos influencia e é alimentada pelo poder afetivo da cidade.

Keywords

Lagosaffective capitalmusic videoNigeriaemotional capitalstar image
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 127 - 148
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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References

Videography

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McDonald, Paul. 2000. The Star System: Hollywood’s Production of Popular Identities. London: Wallflower.Google Scholar
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O’Brien, Maeve. 2008. “Gendered Capital: Emotional Capital and Mothers’ Care Work in Education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 29 (2): 137–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogude, James. 2012. “The Invention of Traditional Music in the City: Exploring History and Meaning in Urban Music in Contemporary Kenya.” Research in African Literatures 43 (4): 147–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Reay, Diane. 2000. “A Useful Extension of Bourdieu’s Conceptual Framework?: Emotional Capital As a Way of Understanding Mothers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education.” The Sociological Review 48 (4): 568–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reay, Diane. 2004. “Gendering Bourdieu’s Concept of Capitals? Emotional Capital, Women and Social Class.” The Sociological Review 52 (2): 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Carol. 2009. “Schooling Responses to Youth Crime: Building Emotional Capital.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 13(6): 617–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweingruber, David, and Berns, Nancy. 2005. “Shaping the Selves of Young Salespeople through Emotion Management.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34 (6): 679–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Servant, Jean-Christophe. 2003. “Which Way Nigeria?. Music Under Threat: A Question of Money, Morality, Self-censorship and the Sharia. Copenhagen: Freemuse.Google Scholar
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Waterman, Christopher. 1988. “Aṣíkò, Sákárà and Palmwine: Popular Music and Social Identity in Inter-War Lagos, Nigeria”. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 17 (2/3): 229–258.Google Scholar
Waterman, Christopher. 1990. Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, Christopher. 2002. “Big Man, Black President, Masked One.” In Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa, edited by Palmberg, Mai and Kirkegaard, Annemette, 19–34. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Zembylas, Michalinos. 2007. “Emotional Capital and Education: Theoretical Insights from Bourdieu.” British Journal of Educational Studies 55 (4): 443–63.Google Scholar
Adama, Oyanta. 2018. “Urban imaginaries: Funding Mega Infrastructure Projects in Lagos, Nigeria.” GeoJournal 83:257–74.Google Scholar
Adedeji, Wale. 2013. “African Popular Culture and the Path of Consciousness: Hip Hop and the Culture of Resistance in Nigeria.” Postcolonial Text 3 (4):1–18.Google Scholar
Adey, Peter. 2008. “Airports, Mobility and the Calculative Architecture of Affective Control. Geoforum 39 (1): 438–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2004. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Alaja-Browne, Afolabi. 1985. “Juju Music: A Study of Its Social History and Style.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Alaja-Browne, Afolabi. 1989. “The Origin and Development of JuJu Music.” The Black Perspective in Music 17 (1/2): 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allat, Patricia. 1993. “Becoming Privileged: the Role of Family Processes.” In Youth and Inequality, edited by Bates, Inge and Riseborough, George, 139–59. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Ben. 2009. “Affective Atmospheres.” Emotion, Space and Society 2 (2): 77– 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Augoye, Jane. 2018. “What It Takes to Make a Nigerian Film—Nolllywood Director, Charles Uwagbai, Premium Times. July 7. Https://www.premiumtimesng.com/entertainment/nollywood/275345-what-it-takes-to-make-a-nigerian-film-nollywood-director-charles-uwagbai.html. Accessed January, 2022.Google Scholar
Barber, Karin. 1987. “Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30 (3): 1–78.Google Scholar
Bender, Wolfgang. 1991. Sweet Mother: Modern African Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Betiang, Liwhu. 2013. “Global Drums and Local Masquerades: Fifty Years of Television Broadcasting in Nigeria: 1959–2009.” Sage Open 3 (4): 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bladow, Kyle, and Ladino, Jennifer. 2018. “Toward an Affective Ecocriticism: Placing Feeling in the Anthropocene.” In Affective Ecocriticism: Emotion, Embodiment, Environment, edited by Bladow, Kyle and Ladino, Jennifer, 1–22. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Boluwaduro, Stephen Olabanji. 2018. “Lagos: Music and the Postcolonial Metropolis.” Muziki 15 (2): 44–60.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by Richardson, John, 241–58. Translated by Nice, Richard. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Nice, Richard. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Waquant, Loïc J. D. 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Casey, Edward, 2001, ``Between Geography and Philosophy: What Does It Mean to be in the Place-World?’’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91: 683–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheeseman, Nic, and de Gramont, Diane. 2017. “Managing a Mega-City: Learning the Lessons from Lagos.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 33 (3): 457–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duff, Cameron. 2010. “On the Role of Affect and Practice in the Production of Place.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28: 881–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyer, Richard. 1998. Stars. London: British Film Institute.Google Scholar
Dyer, Richard. 2004. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eromosele, Femi. 2021. “Lagos in Contemporary Nigerian Music Video: Brymo’s ‘1 Pound (The Documentary).’” Social Dynamics 47 (1): 7–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman, Murray. 2002. The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Forman, Murray. 2004. “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City: Hip-Hop, Space and Place.” In That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, edited by Forma, Murray and Neal, Mark Anthony, 155–57. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forster, Till. 2014. “On Creativity in African Urban Life: African Cities as Sites of Creativity and Emancipation.” In Culture in Africa: The Episteme of the Everyday, edited by Newell, Stephanie and Okome, Onookome, 27–46. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gillies, Val. 2006. “Working Class Mothers and School Life: Exploring the Role of Emotional Capital.” Gender and Education 18 (3): 281–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, Jonathan. 1995. “Nigerian Cinema: Structural Adjustments.” Research in African Literatures. 26 (3): 97– 119.Google Scholar
Haynes, Jonathan. 2007. “Nollywood in Lagos, Lagos in Nollywood Films.” Africa Today 54 (2): 131–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Seth D. 2014. “What Makes Lagos a Model City.” The New York Times, 7 January. Accessed 03 February 2020 at https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/opinion/what-makes-lagos-a-model-city.html.Google Scholar
Magee, Carol. 2018. “Imag(in)ing Lagos Globally.” Social Dynamics 44 (3): 438–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maton, Karl. 2008. “Habitus.” In Bourdieu, Pierre : Concepts, Key, edited by Grenfell, Michael, 49–65. Stocksfield: Acumen Publishing.Google Scholar
McDonald, Paul. 2000. The Star System: Hollywood’s Production of Popular Identities. London: Wallflower.Google Scholar
Moore, Robert. 2008. “Capital.” In Bourdieu, Pierre : Concepts, Key, edited by Grenfell, Michael, 101–17. Stocksfield: Acumen Publishing.Google Scholar
Nairametrics. 2017. “Why Nigerian Music Videos Cost So Much.” Nairametrics, June 25. https://nairametrics.com/2015/10/02/why-nigerian-music-videos-cost-so-much/. Accessed January 2022.Google Scholar
Nowotny, Helga. 1981. “Women in Public Life in Austria.” In Access to Power: Cross-national Studies of Women and Elites, edited by Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs and Coser, Rose Laub, 147–56. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Maeve. 2008. “Gendered Capital: Emotional Capital and Mothers’ Care Work in Education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 29 (2): 137–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogude, James. 2012. “The Invention of Traditional Music in the City: Exploring History and Meaning in Urban Music in Contemporary Kenya.” Research in African Literatures 43 (4): 147–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olaniyan, Tejumola. 2004. Arrest the Music! Fela and his Rebel Art and Politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Omojola, Bode. 1995. Nigerian Art Music. Ibadan: IFRA. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ifra.598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reay, Diane. 2000. “A Useful Extension of Bourdieu’s Conceptual Framework?: Emotional Capital As a Way of Understanding Mothers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education.” The Sociological Review 48 (4): 568–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reay, Diane. 2004. “Gendering Bourdieu’s Concept of Capitals? Emotional Capital, Women and Social Class.” The Sociological Review 52 (2): 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Carol. 2009. “Schooling Responses to Youth Crime: Building Emotional Capital.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 13(6): 617–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweingruber, David, and Berns, Nancy. 2005. “Shaping the Selves of Young Salespeople through Emotion Management.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34 (6): 679–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Servant, Jean-Christophe. 2003. “Which Way Nigeria?. Music Under Threat: A Question of Money, Morality, Self-censorship and the Sharia. Copenhagen: Freemuse.Google Scholar
Soyinka, Wole. 2020 “Unsinkable City.” Stranger’s Guide https://strangersguide.com/articles/unsinkable-city/. Accessed January 15, 2022.Google Scholar
Sylvanus, Emaeyak Peter. 2018. “A Brief History of TV and TV Music Practice in Nigeria.” Muziki 15 (1): 37–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsika, Noah A. 2015. Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, Christopher. 1988. “Aṣíkò, Sákárà and Palmwine: Popular Music and Social Identity in Inter-War Lagos, Nigeria”. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 17 (2/3): 229–258.Google Scholar
Waterman, Christopher. 1990. Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, Christopher. 2002. “Big Man, Black President, Masked One.” In Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa, edited by Palmberg, Mai and Kirkegaard, Annemette, 19–34. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Zembylas, Michalinos. 2007. “Emotional Capital and Education: Theoretical Insights from Bourdieu.” British Journal of Educational Studies 55 (4): 443–63.Google Scholar