Musicians must embrace audiovisual heritage preservation

Mrs. Judith Opoku, an archivist at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, has urged musicians to submit copies of their music albums to archival institutions to serve as a reference point.

That she explained would help preserve their art for future generations, as archiving represents one of the pillars of preserving arts.

Mrs. Opoku, in an interview with GNA Entertainment, said archives help facilitate the transition from a traditional setting to the modern system hence the need for musicians to embrace the concept.

Mrs. Opoku asserted that “referencing the past is very important when we want to move forward as a people and archiving becomes invaluable in the tracing of information on individual, families, or generational histories globally.

“It is upon the old that the new is built, so Archives should be the foundation for living art, so musicians should not create in isolation. They need a reference point and a music archive serves that purpose.”

Mrs. Opoku added that one of the best way to preserve our precious art forms is to admonish archival institutions to transfer the music captured on inaccessible formats (magnetic tapes) unto digital formats.

She however mentioned the need to support local archival institutions in terms of upgrading the archives to meet international standards and also increase their budgetary allocations.

Mrs. Opoku revealed that Ghana had lost a great deal of its music because most of the songs which were recorded on analogue formats were never transferred to more accessible formats and therefore had been lost due to obsolescence.