Almost as far back as the days of stone, London has been a giant amongst the crowd.
From growing up as toddlers vocalizing the world’s most renowned nursery rhyme; “London bridge is falling down“, to poems about going to London to see the Queen, The level of impact that this city has on the world at large cannot be over emphasized.
London as we all know, is a well established media city, as a matter of fact, it ranks as the third on the list of the Savills Media cities index which was incorporated in 2006 behind Los Angeles and New York City. Having the universal respectability for it’s arts and culture and it’s reputation for sprouting out global musical icons for over half a century till the present day.
From the days of The Beatles which are undeniably one of the greatest musical groups to walk the earth surface, to The Rolling Stones, Elton John, David Bowie, Bee Gees amongst others who rocked the last century, to music from new generation stars like Adele, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, One Direction, also down to the Grime/Drill rap music scene, which stands a profound signature of the modern day London, that has now stamped itself as one of the most unique new sounds of hip-hop in recent years.
Some of the world’s largest crowds at a musical concert are seen in London, and from my personal assessment as a Music Journalist, I have studied that there is hardly ever a world tour without including venues in the UK, be it Musicals, Comedy, or Film. As long as it’s got to do with art and entertainment, London and the UK has got a large demand for entertainment, and a robust set of government incentives for the media industry.
In a class of it’s own, with only a few other mega cities to compare it to, London is renowned for hosting various music festivals that are known to attract monstrous crowds, With the largest crowd ever recorded being the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, the biggest concert ever held in UK with 600,000 people in the audience.
Fast track to more recent times, Coldplay’s World Tour 2012, a three-show run in London at the Emirates Stadium in June had sell-out crowds on each night totaling over 173,000 for the three dates. During Adele‘s 2016 concert at Glastonbury, she performed before 150,000 fans.
The city’s love for music and entertainment in general is the reason why entertainers from all parts of the globe tend to see London as a second home. The likes Of Michael Jackson, Prince, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Culture down to Bob Marley who birthed a child(Julian Marley) with a woman from London during his stay there have all shown great love for the city.
The Notting Hill Carnival is another event that stands the city out from it’s peers. One of the largest and most talked about carnivals in the world, The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966 on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington, which sees people from all over the world troop in to celebrate and enjoy the colorful exhibition of music, display of flamboyant costumes and dancing from streets to streets. The Carnival has Witnessed the likes of Rihanna, Shakira, Adele and more celebrated names take part in the jubilatory occasion.
London has ties with the world, and the world has ties with London, it’s a mixture of various people and cultures. A perfect example is the inclusion if the Jamaican culture in East and South London lifestyle, which is also very visible in their way of communication, while also imbibing the Jamaican Patois to their music. The city is home to more than 800,000 British Jamaicans, those who were born in Jamaica or who are of Jamaican descent. Brixton, a multiethnic community in south London, has become an enclave for many Jamaicans.
Jamaican-owned clothing boutiques, record shops and restaurants have opened all over the area. The Brixton Market, a community market is lined with vendors blasting the latest hits coming out of Jamaica. The market has played such a major role in embracing London’s Caribbean cultural experience.
Present day Jamaican entertainers like Beenie Man, Popcaan, Alkaline and Kranium are known to frequent London on a regular basis for either tours, vacations or just basically working. The same can be said of Nigerian entertainers who have been known to sell out massive arenas of 20,000 capacity during their concerts in London. Acts like Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy have all had sold out concerts at the O2 Arena and SSE Wembley arena respectively.
In recent times, Afro-beats has walked it’s way into the united kingdom, creating a solid ground of it’s own. Unlike any other diaspora country, the UK is the biggest consumer of this genre of music besides Nigeria it’s birthplace.
About a decade and half ago, it was almost impossible to have a Nigerian record chart on the UK or US Billboards, it seemed very underrecognized and swept under the carpet. Even though a very scanty number of songs from Nigeria were making it to radios and nightclubs in London, the spread was still very much minimal.
Over the last decade, and the world has begun to witness the massive impact of Afrobeats music, records from Nigeria and West Africa has captivated the minds and airwaves of music lovers in the whole of Europe and the world at large, especially in the present generation of New Media where music can be consumed from all corners of the world by just one tap on our mobile devices.
This development has broadened the level of musical fanbase globally, making it possible for an artiste to have a numerous amount of fans in a country they have never stepped foot in. This system is what makes it possible for Afrobeats front-liners such as Wizkid , Burnaboy and the likes to have successful sold out events far away from home.
Just in the way Afrobeats and it’s culture has influenced the modern-day London Scene, same can be said for Drill/Grime Music influencing the Nigerian and American rap scene. The new school New York Grime Rap is a replica of the London Grime.
Acts like the Late Pop Smoke, Fivio Foreign, and CJ have all clinched to the style and flow, making it their signatures as individual artistes. With Pop Smoke making it more renowned in the US back in 2019, artistes Like Quavo, Kanye West And Drake have all gone ahead to hop on Drill records and received positive reviews.
In Nigeria, there is a reasonable amount of rap songs out in the country right now that favours the Drill/Grime sound of London. Although the hip-hop market in the country isn’t so huge as can be said of other countries, Nigerian Rappers seem to have caught wind of this rap style and have chosen to ride on that wave, dishing out typical London-styled hip-hop music with a bend of the Naija feel, which surprisingly is warmly accepted by fans in the country, citing the fact that it is distanced from the regular pattern of hip-hop that has been around for years.
The insertion of Grime sound to the Nigerian and African music space is a breath of fresh air to listeners, and this is just one of many ways that the modern London pop culture proffers it’s unique spice to the world at large.
