A lot of what is said to be Nigerian pop culture is actually niche culture.
Pop culture is the cool buzz word that has many Nigerian writers excited.
Blogs and websites are scrambling and falling over themselves to curate the pop culture of the most populous black nation in the world.
It is the news arms race among Nigerian new media. The voice and force of millennials are growing and many new media establishments want to cash in on this growing market.
There is so much 'Nigerian pop' content on the 'net these days from fashion, music, movies and sports that you might not know where to start from.
Undoubtedly, there is a gold rush for Nigerian pop culture but sadly a lot of what is sold as our pop culture is not. I hate to burst the woke bubble that many of us have been living but what we see as Nigerian pop culture is at best alternative pop culture.
Within the last year, so-called curators of Nigerian pop culture have put a misplaced emphasis on an alternative lifestyle. This lifestyle is wrongly described as Nigerian pop culture. It is not.
First of all, let us break down what pop culture is. It is the attitude, beliefs, philosophies, perspective and thinking that are within the mainstream of a culture. By this definition alone, we can say if it is not mainstream it is not pop culture. If it does not define a generation in a specific period of time, then it is not pop culture.
What is Nigerian pop culture and what is not?
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NTA 2 Channel 5's children's programming in the 90s is Nigerian pop culture. Anime, while, cool is not. It is niche culture- a subculture of youth culture that grew after NTA 2 Channel 5's pop culture programming crumbled. Anime is not mainstream but it has a passionate community that makes it thrive below the mainstream.
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Street skating is Nigerian pop culture. Skateboarding is a subculture of street skating. At weekends, hundreds of kids skate at the National Stadium. This phenomenon has created jobs for these street skaters. They are famous for handing out fliers on public roads. Skateboarding is cool and has a tight knit community but it has made it to the mainstream yet.
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Going to viewing centres to watch football matches is Nigerian pop culture through and through. What is more mainstream than that? Twitter Premier League and SociaLiga are examples of subcultures of Nigeria's football pop culture.
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The Nigerian singer Small Doctor is pop culture. He taps into the mainstream with his mass appeal. Odunsi, for now, is still niche culture.
