NOTE: The material which appears below is a somewhat revised and 'domesticated' version of the one released in connection with Africa's Top 40 Pop Songs of the Year. The present focus is on The Happiest Pop Songs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The same criteria are used this year as were used last year to select and rank, out of the songs released or published during the year, those that project and/or elicit the highest quotient of happiness in the listener/audience. The final list of happiest songs has a maximum of 40 songs.
As before, the focus in this series of lists is the song, not the singer, with the added requirement that only songs in video form qualify. In addition, the song must broadly fit the standard definition of popular (or pop) music; that is, music in any of these distinct genres, or any combination of them: Benga, Blues, Bongo Flava, Genge, Hip Hop, Kizomba, Kwaito, RnB, Rap, Reggae, Rock or Soul. We are not dealing here with gospel, classical or traditional music. However, borderline cases or creative partial 'fusions' with them will always be considered.
Several segments of the Top 40 -- specifically Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 -- will be separately released for quick reference, and (for whatever it's worth) in order to focus attention on them and permit longitudinal and other comparisons. But, as we start browsing and clicking, let's remember that
Top 10 is hallowed space
. Only the best songs (or in this case the happiest songs) should populate it, in proper order, regardless of country or sex or language or ethnic identity or religion, or race, or genre (within the limits specified above); and here they do.
In 'happiest songs' we include only those in which the singers have made patently creative use of those elements that characterize all music (of which pop is an integral part) in order to give them (the songs) superior appeal to the average or accomplished ear. These elements include: Tone, melody, harmony, beat, rhyme, rhythm, audibility, tempo, and the overall audio-visual impact. In addition, however, the happiness factor must come into sufficient play in order to help to determine, intuitively or more systematically, how differently a given song reaches the generalized ear, and how differently the hearer responds to it.
Pop music is 'popular' in the sense that it resonates with large publics, in their present (or day-to-day, or contemporary) circumstances. If not pop, it is traditional in orientation, and thus locked in, and into, the past; though such a song may eventually acquire the revered status of a classic -- here or there. Over time, it is important to realize, too, that day-to-day begins inexorably to provide a break with what we may call the past. This is distinctly the case in multicultural environments, or the 'melting pots' of deep-urban localities.
As already pointed out, #TheYamboSelection (or #TYS) rates only music videos. The point here is that an artist who does not release the video version of a song is simply not ready for big time with that song. Fans nowadays want to see what's going on with the artiste and his or her 'band' -- and brand -- while the song is sung. Today's pop scene, it seems obvious, is inescapably audio-visual. Sound quality matters exceedingly, and so does the quality of the visual dimension. And let's not forget that the production of a video is a cooperative venture between the artiste(s) and the video director/producer. The latter do deserve credit too when things go really right -- really cool.
Success demands that the audio-visual challenge be simultaneously attacked from two perspectives: (a) From the performance perspective, the artiste's obligation is to produce the vocals, the lyrics and the dance or 'stage' routines (the body text) that together signify, accentuate or enhance his or her persona in the eyes and ears of the fans. (b) From the recording perspective, both the sounds (in all their permutations and combinations) and the visuals are technically the responsibility of the cinematographer and/or the video director/producer.
The artiste must therefore choose very carefully, and it costs a tidy sum to commit the people who can produce a video of high technical and artistic quality. Indeed, as iconic directors such as Clarence Peters, Justin Campos, MattMax, C.A.R.D.O.S.O and Moe Musa know -- and as those who know their work do too -- the task of directing/producing a winning music video is not merely a technical challenge but a demanding creative-artistic one as well. This does of course rope in the actors, the artistes, as everything visual converges on the set. Certainly, the dancing and other forms of acting must be well choreographed for the camera and synchronized with the song, even if the sound of a particular single or track comes to the set pre-recorded.
The naming of more than one hit inevitably prompts the question as to which hit comes first, and which next or last. Sometimes, all too often perhaps, there are ties which must be broken and songs which must thus, regrettably, be excluded. The more valued the list, the greater the regret all around.
In selecting and ranking Africa's Top 40 Happiest Songs -- limited to Sub-Sahara as already indicated -- the following six criteria (each on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the highest score) have served as a guide (and thus an otherwise altogether qualitative proposition is tempered with a known procedure):
1. The creative appeal and musicality of the voice asset.
2. The choice and mastery of the musical instruments in play.
3. The poetic form and content of the lyrics.
4. The artistic and aesthetic depth of the video component.
5. The synchronic or choreographic quality of the audio-visual product, in terms of: harmony, tone, melody, rhythm, beat, audibility and color (dis)play.
6. Based on the foregoing, how happy the entire single/track, from beginning to end, makes me feel: about it, about me, about the moment -- and, for the time being, about "things" or life. This criterion also serves as a qualitative tie-breaker; that is, a virtual 'casting vote' whenever any other criteria yield a quantitative tie.
In addition to the six criteria, the maximum number of listed titles under which an artist may be indicated as the lead singer in a given year is firmly restricted to three; but there is no limit to the number of times an artist may feature or make cameo appearances in listed songs or videos.
