Mainstream Culture, Celebrity Subculture, and Youth Defiance in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Among young Nigerians, Naira Marley is a crowd-pulling songster. To most of the older Lagos residents, the effects of his genre of music appear to pitch his young followers against the mainstream culture and predispose them to act deantly against the mainstream culture. This article examines the impact of Naira Marley's music and lifestyle on the social well-being of Marlians in Lagos, Nigeria. The study adopted the qualitative method. Purposively, it selected 42 participants out of whom 30 were in-depth interview participants and 12 key informant interview participants who were all selected from communities across Lagos. The data were thematically and content analyzed. It found that the musical sermons of Naira Marley appeal not to the intellect but sentiments of youths to undermine their acquired social training before encountering the artiste and his ideologies. It concludes that Naira Marley's music is characterized by vulgarity, indecency, and strongly biased against women which further escalate the collapse of the core values of society among youths in Lagos. It, therefore, suggests a value reconstruction-driven family system that re-enacts the traditional role of the individual to enhance responsible child socialization to guarantee a safer Lagos