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[ladbroke]

I believe that you can't really love music unless you can listen to anything and find something to appreciate about it. Growing up, however, this certainly wasn't my philosophy, so when my brother would sit in his room nodding back and forth to whatever black people were singing on MTV, I would have none of it. No way. I'm not some pussy

Comments

[insomniablues]

I actually don't think hip hop is unique among musical genres for being strongly associated with a certain lifestyle (non hip-hop examples that come immediately to mind: The Beatles, The Spice Girls). Even "indie" has been pitched to mainstream audiences to market movies, clothing, and everything else under the sun. Just look at the success of stores like Urban Outfitters; "authentic" or not, they're certainly appropriating elements of a musical genre to cater to an audience that wants the lifestyle that goes with the tunes. Along similar lines, films like Garden State and Juno derive much of their content from romanticized takes on lifestyles that revolved heavily around a specific type of music.

Also, though I agree that mainstream American hip hop has become a bit monotonous, this isn't the case everywhere. The Hilltop Hoods, for example, are relatively popular in Australia, and their songs deal with a wide variety of subject matter. And while I realize you were mostly decrying popular stuff, there is plenty of lesser-known hip hop in the U.S. that's fairly decent (e.g. Blue Scholars).

I guess my point is that I don't think hip hop as a genre should be singled out for a lot of this stuff, because it applies to many other kinds of music as well. That's not to say that it's a good trend, just that it isn't exclusive to hip hop.

[insomniablues]

Oh and I find Hannah Montana much more horrible than any of the hip hop stuff.