Code Shifting or Code Switching as a Style in Simi’s and Adekunle Gold's Songs

Abstract

Adekunle Kòsọ́kọ́ and Sìmisola Kòsọ́kọ́ (nee Ogunleye) are married singers, both born and bred in Lagos known by the stage names Kunle Gold and Simi respectively. They are among a group of young, popular, and successful songwriters, composers, and singers. Their music has gained the hearts of Nigerian people, especially the youth. The focus of this paper is to examine critically how they make use of code-switching or code-shifting in their respective music as a 'style' in order to differentiate their songs and also to make a unique identity. It is observed that they alternate between two or more languages to pass information to the target audience in order to showcase their fluency in the languages hence showing their level of literacy and flexibility. The data for analysis and discussion are songs from ‘Duduke’, ‘Sade’, ‘No forget me’, 'Selense’, ‘Promise Me’, and ‘Joromi’. Sociology Theory is used to drive home the point of discussion to reflect the effect of the songs on society.