Controversial managers not healthy for artistes

Many musicians are finding it difficult to hit the limelight, because their managers are busy chasing stardom for themselves instead of focusing on the development of their artistes.

Despite their duration in the music industry, the sizzling performances they put up and great songs they churn out, certain artistes are still not where they deserve to be. Why?

While several people attribute this situation to DJs not playing songs of local artistes and the media not giving them much attention, others opine such artistes are not working hard enough or it is just not their time to shine.

This week in Flex Newspaper, how about if we put our blame glasses on and take a quick look at the kind of managers some talented, but struggling musicians have? When the music industry is critically scrutinized, one would notice that there are some particular artiste managers who can boldly be tagged as more famous than their artistes.

These managers are always in the news or trending on social media for doing or saying something controversial. Most of them are so contentious to the extent that, they take all the shine away from the very artistes they manage. Sometimes recording and releasing songs are just not enough work to sell an artiste. Regardless of how talented a musician is, once a while they need publicity stunts or gimmicks to get people’s attention to their works.

Controversy they say sells, so if that is what a manager would personally love to strive on, what would be left for the musician to feed on at the end of the day? Managers of today even want to be popular than the musicians. They concentrate on how to get their own names on the lips of the masses, leaving their artistes in the dark.

A controversial artiste always has a huge following which usually tends to attract investors for business, but what will we do with a controversial manager? How can a manager who is always in unnecessary altercation with people or showering consecutive verbal attacks on personalities bring food to the table of an artiste, when he has made more enemies than create rapport?

A musician needs an affable manager who will work magic behind the scenes and let their success do the talking. Not a manager who will steal the face, voice and brand of the very act he is supposed to be showing off to the world.

The media, DJs and co have been blamed for killing acts for far too long. It is not as if some artistes are still at stage one of their careers due to laziness or perhaps ill luck. Let’s open our eyes and fire selfish managers who are suppressing the stardom of musicians under their umbrellas.