Stop the ‘blabber music’, tell us relevant, enlightening stories – Tommy Annan-Forson to musicians

“I virtually don’t listen to our [modern] music because there’s nothing to understand. There’s really nothing to understand [about life from it]. It’s just blabber music. There’s no storyline,” he said.

The broadcast legend guested on CTV’s Master of the Game hosted by His Royal Blackness Kwesi Kyei Darkwah (KKD) on Monday, December 2, 2024.

Observing, “They say: ‘Bad news sells, bad music sells’,” TAF worried over “a few stations playing songs with provocative language, cuss words, and stuff like that.

“And it’s like, ‘Who cares?’ Free to go. To which I say, ‘You dare not, in our age in broadcasting, do such a thing’.

“What is being done about it?”

He identified beyond broadcasters, much of the blame lay with music makers.

“If I tell a musician today to remove these words, he’ll tell me, ‘This is what sells’,” the radio host and comic icon said. “It’s like they say in the entertainment industry, it is sex that sells.”

Tommy Annan-Forson cautioned creatives against blindly following the status quo, “and by the time you realise, you’ve ruined your reputation”.

He commended those who were “being wise” about their work, urging an approach that utilised “a clean and educative mind” to enlighten listeners instead of aiming to simply excite.

The multiple award-winning cross-generational radio talent and educator underlined that “music tells a story”.

“When I play Country music, I’m telling a story about myself and the listener,” the broadcaster nicknamed the King of Country explained.

“When I play a particular Country song that makes my heart beat or skip a beat, I know that the listener will like this. It has a good storyline line – it affects you and I.”

TAF has worked in the media in various capacities, from presenting to managing to teaching, beginning at the national broadcaster GBC in the 70s.

Over 47 years, he has made a mark entertaining through on-air presentations, standup comedy, mastering ceremonies, disk jockeying, and teaching and mentoring renowned broadcasters and musicians like the late media star Komla Dumor and rap legend Edem, among many others.