ABSTRACT
Music video is referred to as a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purpose. This falls under mass media agent of socialisation and it plays a major role in socialisation due the powerful influence of the mass media on its audience. Naira Marley’s music videos are known for the dissemination of social ills (such as indecency, sexual, drug abuse and violence) contents and these contents influence the personality of his audience (listeners and viewers). To this effect, this study examined the influence of Naira Marley’s music videos on the subculture of youths in Nigeria. To achieve this objective, survey research method was adopted to collect data from a sample size of 322 which was drawn out using the purposive sampling technique, to represent students of Mass Communication Department of University of Benin. From the survey findings, it was discovered that a large number of Nigerian youths do not follow the music videos of Naira Marley, however some Nigerian youths follow his music videos and majority of them are not influenced by the music videos of Naira Marley. However, the fact remains that the subculture of some of Nigerian youths is influenced by the music videos of Naira Marley. Also, the results from the survey showed that the contents disseminated by Naira Marley’s music videos are indecency, sexual, drug abuse and violence contents and these influence the choice of word, dress mode, use of drugs and sexual behaviour of some Nigerian youths. Therefore, it is recommended that Nigeria music artists should seek to promote cultures that are acceptable and of good standard in the Nigerian society, Nigerian music artists should understand that they are prominent personalities and role model to many Nigerian youths and as a result of this they should be careful of what morals they portray and teach through their personal and professional (music and videos production) lives, parents should censor the contents of songs and music videos their wards are exposed to, knowing well that the audiovisual contents they consume register in their consciousness and influence their thoughts and behaviours and National Broadcasting Commission, National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and all other stakeholders in Nigerian music industry should control and censor the contents produced and disseminated by Nigerian music artists, broadcast and social media to ensure they do not undermine the moral codes of the Nigerian society.
