Now for more personal issues
My last post was huge, for reasons unforseen. It was just a spur of the moment thing where I had to get thoughts written down. It helps for if I ever consider writing a book. obviously I'm not reaching a very large audience now but I'd like to someday
( Read more... )
Now this whole thing about basically the encouragement of stupidity. Music has very little to do with the intelligence level of the people who listen to it. I would like to think of myself as living proof of that, considering I can listen to say, a notorius BIG record, and appreciate it for what it is: a piece of art that resulted from the environment from which the artist came. I listen to quite a bit of hip-hop. I understand the origins and history of the genre. Something tells me you haven't spent much time on that. But there certainly is a lot of humanity to it. Art is art. And music is music. There is always going to be shitty music, sure. Nu-metal will always be crap, for instance. Nickelback is insanely popular and all the guy sings about is getting his dicked sucked in his car. These players have "taken time to master their instruments", but for what result? Yeah, the music is complete shit, both lyrically and musically. But is this a threat to the population? A threat to the culture? Come on now. Some rappers are going to say some retarded things. And some music is going to be bad. Big deal? no. It's more of a musical discussion than a political one.
The dwindling culture and laziness of our generation doesn't come from hip-hop music, it comes from the commodification and corporatization of every aspect of our daily lives. Superficial gangsta rap music may be a specific portion and result of this, but it does not represent even close to the entire issue.
even if this were true, even if rap could in fact be passed off as a national scapegoat for the problems with our youth and culture, what do you propose we do? censor them? what kind of culture would we be a part of then?
and if not censor them, then what? "promote awareness"? please, it's fucking music.
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I agree that commodification and corporatization is a problem. Too much materialism causes us to lose our humanity.
But rap culture is a bigger problems for other reasons as well. Rap culture promotes disrespect to others, even when they don't deserve it. It influences stupid children at a young age to do the same. These children become parents and then it spreads. With such poor role models, people in bad neighborhoods aren't provided with a way to improve even though they think they do.
Maybe it's because of my location. At my school, rap culture is huge. It's like the theme to everything. And of course people without talent are recognized when they shouldn't be. For instance this group of four guys won a bunch of money by going up on stage and showing their nipple rings at the talent show, as opposed to me, who has spent much time and effort trying to gain talent. These guys were just fucking around. You may not agree, but I don't think it takes much talent to rap. It just takes promotion and image. You have talent too, so I don't know why you wouldn't agree.
Of course I resent censorship, and do not suggest simply banning rap music. But for example in the early 90s thanks to Nirvana, good music was popular. Culture was a hell of a lot better too. It shows that music reflects on culture, and also shows that things can be changed by simply speaking against it and getting a lot of people to agree, therefore causing public opinion to change.
As far as the history of rap, that's not really what I'm talking about. It used to be so much better than it is now.
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I think BIG had talent. Critically speaking, his music held up. Something tells me you could simply not flow the same way. No?
It's the major labels that ruin music. But not necessarily culture in general. Extending music to all of culture and public consciousness definitely is a mistake.
Have you ever read any of the Adbusters articles on the Mental Environment? I'm not really big into those guys anymore, but I recommend it.
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I am completely with you on major labels ruining music. They are choosing style and gimmicks over content. Either way they get money, it's just a matter of choosing what they think will be more lucrative. I think the business is better in the UK simply based on the talent that historically has come to be known from there and how it continues to stream from there.
I have not read these articles but I'll try to check them out.
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