• Rocky Dawuni proffers solutions for Ghana music
• Rocky Dawuni suggests there should be a national policy for the music industry
• The industry, he says, has not attracted investors because of lack of systems, others
icon Rocky Dawuni has said Ghanaian music can have a bigger impact outside the borders of the country when stakeholders unite, become well organised and push talents.
According to him, the absence of these qualities from Ghana’s music industry has left musicians with no option than to do everything all by themselves in their bid to have their dreams realized, a practice that does not attract investors.
“We haven’t had the investment, systems, institutions, technical opportunities and the trained personnel to carry our music over the years to make us impact in the way that we could have”, he said on GhanaWeb TV’s entertainment review show Bloggers’ Forum.
“We’ve never had big record labels here that has been able to be well-financed to be able to nurture talents, sign talents and also have connections around the world where they could plug an artiste right here so it’s been individual artistes who have to work very hard to breach those gaps.”
He continued: “It’s still a progress. We need the industry to be much more well organized. We need the systems of accountability for music that is being played well set up. We need national policy…
“All these forms the ecosystem. They need to work together so that when we push forward, we push forward with all our strength behind it.”
Rocky Dawuni has released seven albums with the sixth earning him Best Reggae Album nomination at the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards, making him the first nominee for Ghana.
Since forming a music band ‘Local Crisis’ during his days at the University of Ghana through to releasing his first album ‘The Movement’ in 1996 to his latest EP ‘Voice of Bunbon’ which has ‘Woara’, a song that explores the foundations of Ghanaian Highlife music, Rocky Dawuni has been regarded as a music icon.