“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is a success.” – Henry Ford
As stated in the above quote, working as a team has always proven successful in various life fields. The music industry has always had its share of teams or groups.
There are some music groups that call themselves collectives. This has caused people to wonder what makes a collective different from a group and what extra addition a collective add to an artist’s career.
A musical collective is a flexible group of affiliated artists who combine their creativity and ideas in making music and performing together or sometimes for a collaborative project. The flexible nature of a collective allows its members to work on music independently of each other or come together as a group.
Thus, as a collective a member can have their own independent career and a career with the collective.
Last year, I came across many collectives within the Ghanaian music space. However, for those now hearing of collectives within our industry, it must be noted that musical collectives have always been a part of our industry.
One of the earliest that comes to mind is NAKOREX (Akosua Agyapong, Rex Omar and Amandzeba Nat Brew)
Another famous collective that existed was Ofori Amponsah & Kofi Ntim & Borasky. In recent times we have had collectives such us Fokn Bois, La Meme Gang, Ground Up Chale, Black Girls Glow an all-female collective, A-squared, ReboTribe, Super Jazz Club, TSD, Les June, I No Bore and WeirdxGenius just to name a few.
Throughout time, collectives have played an enormous role in an artiste’s growth. Perks of being in a collective include the sharing of ideas and resources among the group, and leveraging the fan base of each member. Thus, as much as the success of the group affects members of the group, an individual’s success can affect the fate of others.
However, running a collective is twice as hard as having an individual career. One must be willing to sacrifice and compromise on many things if they want to be part of a collective. The success of a collective is rooted in the ability of the group to join forces and work as a group.
Below are five of my favourite projects by a Ghanaian collective
99Phaces – So We Made A Tape
SuperJazzClub – For All The Good Times
Kofi Nti and Ofori Amponsah – Rakia
La Meme Gang – La Meme Tape
Honourable Mention: The Colony – Colonization The Playlist (Soundcloud)
Credit: Nana Kojo Mula
