There is a new phenomenon amongst commercial motorbike riders in Yaounde. They attach musical devices to their motorbikes which blast music as they transport their passengers from place to place. Although new, the situation is fast growing. The Median has observed that of every five bikes or so that fly past, at least one has such a device.

The devices are modern MP3 gadgets in which loads of music are stored. They have a very high volume capacity and are attached to the front of the bikes. Since the streets which the bikes ply are often noisy, the riders raise the volume to the maximum level so that they and the passengers as well as other road users can hear and enjoy the music.

The bike riders go for the most popular music in town. If it is not Petit Pays, it is either Lady Ponce, Mani Bella, Coco Argenté, Erico, Sergio Polo or the new generation Nigerian music makers. These are usually the choices of the younger bike riders. The much older ones prefer the old makossa pieces of artistes such as Dina Bell, Ben Decca, Eboa Lotin, Toto Guillaume, Nkoti François, Penda Dalle, just to mention these.

To the bike riders, everyone around them appreciates the loudness and quality of the music they play. Little do they know that many get irritated by the screeching sound it produces. One such bike rider ran into problems in the Biyem Assi Tamtam Weekend neighbourhood recently when he halted in front of an old man’s house to drop a passenger.

That particular area of the quarter was relatively calm, and so the sound of the music that emanated from the gadget on the bike reverberated in no small measure. The old man in question, apparently disturbed in his sleep, scampered out of the house with a jar of water and threw it at the bike rider!

“What sort of noise is this!” the former thundered. “Have you turned deaf? If you reduce the volume of your music, won’t you hear it well? What is even this issue of playing music on a motorbike? If it must be so loud, then go play it along the main road where there are all sorts of noises! Allow old patients like us to rest our bones!

Asked why the volume of his music is always very high, a bike rider told this reporter: “Music is not music when it is not loud. We enjoy it that way. And we must make those around us to feel our presence.”