Jide Taiwo: Pop Culture is as Important as Politics

Vanessa Obioha

You may know him from his thought-provoking posts on X, his insightful books, or his articles in newspapers. Perhaps you’ve heard his voice on podcasts or encountered his work in PR and marketing. Regardless of how you’ve come across him, one thing is certain: Jide Taiwo—often recognized by the moniker The Jide Taiwo—is a prominent voice in the world of pop culture. The addition of ‘The’ to his name serves to distinguish him from others who share his name, particularly those outside the cultural sphere. With a robust background in Digital Storytelling, Transmedia Storytelling, and Community Journalism, Taiwo has emerged as a vital commentator on the intersections of culture, history, and society.

Starting as an entertainment journalist, Taiwo has spent years dissecting pop culture’s intersections with various sectors. For example, in his latest newspaper article, he explored how pop culture can be leveraged for tourism and national branding, using Nigeria’s performance at the Paris Olympics as a case study. On X, he reposted the American actress Halle Berry’s mischievous meme of Nollywood actor Osita Iheme, popularly known as Pawpaw with the caption “The pop culture of Nigeria is undefeated and underrated.”

Taiwo breathes and lives pop culture. To him, it’s more than just trends; it’s a marker of history.

“The way I look at it is that pop culture is a very good marker of history,” he said during a recent chat. “If you study pop culture, or are involved in pop culture, you will find out either willingly or inadvertently the history of people.

He illustrated this by tracing the career of the late Onyeka Onwenu, whose journey reflects notable moments in Nigerian history. From her education in the US to her work with NTA and her BBC documentary on Nigerian corruption in the early ’80s, to her music with King Sunny Ade addressing family planning, and her later standoff with NTA over royalties, Taiwo sees pop culture as a rich source for understanding societal evolution.

“If you follow her trajectory or that of any other popular person, you can learn the history of people in a society, which I think is the most important element of pop culture. And that’s the kind of work that I’ve done, using culture to chart our course, to tell our stories across different formats.”

Taiwo’s storytelling reaches across demographics, from millennials to Gen Z, thanks to his diverse experiences that provide him with multiple perspectives.

“I’m finely placed at that edge of whatever history you are making. I lived through the military days. I have lived through the turn of the century. I’m living in the Wizkid era. So it helps me to see from various angles,” he said.

“Young people may not care for songs that were done in 1991, but the people who were young that year are at a certain age now. You speak to them a certain way. People that are just coming of age now have things that they’re interested in. If Wizkid is doing a song with Drake or Beyoncé, what does that mean for the culture? What does that mean for Wizkid? What does it mean for Beyoncé? These are things that can cut across any angle.”

He further elaborated on the importance of telling stories in different formats to meet audiences where they are.

“Some folks will read books, some folks will watch TikTok. And if the New York Times or The Guardian have highly well-curated TikTok, it’s because they know that there’s a segment of society where TikTok is their primary source of information. That means you have to be there. So for me, I don’t look at myself as a monolith because culture itself is not a monolith. Culture is dynamic, it changes. Some of the things that were not permissible 20 years ago are the norms now. So if you work in the cultural space, it’s important that you look at all the possible angles and take feedback from people who may not necessarily agree with you, but you need to see how they see it and that has helped me a lot.”

Reflecting on cultural shifts, Taiwo recalled growing up in Ibadan at a time when cinemas were copious, including the popular Pen Cinema which is now a bus stop in Lagos.

“These are cultural trends that have changed leading up to a renaissance or resurgence in the 2000s when Silverbird Galleria started. Nowadays cinemas are commonplace. Everybody just walks into a cinema, and is entertained not knowing that in the year 2000, it wasn’t possible.”

In the same vein, he noted society’s evolving attitude towards musicians. Unlike in the past when musicians were often seen as dregs of society, today, there is a positive attitude and acceptance of such careers.

“That is because culture has helped us to see that some of these things need a better look, society has evolved, and it’s important that we as a people, as a culture, also evolve with it.”

While Taiwo is happy that Nigeria’s pop culture is gaining wider appeal across the globe, he is concerned about recency bias where the contributions of pioneers are often overshadowed by current successes.

“It appears that there’s an unwillingness to learn or a deliberate attempt to minimize the achievements of people in the past. The reason we have success now is because there was a lot of work that has landed us to this point in history.”

This in a way inspired him to start documenting these aspects of our culture as he did in his book ‘History Made: The Most Important Nigerian Songs Since 1999,’ a collection of essays on the songs that defined each year.

He is also troubled by how lightly culture journalism is treated in Nigeria compared to other countries.

“Pop culture is as important as politics. If you’re talking about what’s happening at the polity, it is as important as what’s happening in culture, because at the end of the day, culture is that thing that can define you. It’s that thing that can even define what governance should look like. If you look at Europe and the Middle East, for example, they’ve used their cultures to build their civilization. So if you go to Qatar, Dubai, or Saudi Arabia, they don’t shy away from their culture. They’ve used it to build what they want their society, their civilization, and their riches to look like. Sometimes it can be a bit worrisome that we don’t take it as seriously in this part.”

He therefore believes that pop culture should be taken seriously because “we are at a place in history and time that anybody who takes it seriously will be greatly rewarded either financially or as a legacy.”