Today's Pop Music and the culture Supporting it.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:52 am

As this is a forum for discussion, and not simply for listing what music you happen to like the best, I have a few conundrums I would like people to help me out with.

As R&B and Hip-Hop is the current popular music of the moment I would like to ask, how has a genre of music with such noble and artistic roots degraded into what it is today? I realize that the answer is largely capitalism as the same thing happened with metal years ago... Glam Rock bands flying at us from every angle during the 80's but I don't remember anything quite like what we have now.

I have chose Four relatively popular songs (as in the got substantial enough radio and T.V. play to have been brought to my attention which is somewhat impressive as i don't tend to listen to this genre at all) to display for your consideration.

Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zaH4lEWSD4

(please excuse the Youtube links, :\)

This song is sadly the LEAST ridiculous and over the top of my examples, but the Champagne bottle imagery, the amazing degradation of women AND men, and the idea that any women would like to hear "Wait till you see my dick hey Bitch." or "Imma Beat that pussy up" i find unbelievable

Exhibit B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIwnd3VbVs

Ok, The reference to childhood candy obviously brings a somewhat humorous nostalgia, and the linking it to various womens sexual parts and acts brings that into the insane. Though i have been assure that this song is good to "grind" to, but I can't figure out how, as there is a total of 6 main beats, which (at the risk of angering video game music fans) sound like they came out of a NES sound chip.

Exhibit C: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= ... 1850412350

Oh My sister heard this on the radio at her work and showed it to me, I as many of you may or may not know, collect really strange and often "musically" horrible songs that i find so ridiculously bad they amuse me, and the "chipmunk" voice at the beginning of this otherwise standard R&B track always has me laughing ... then I watched the video... This guy was serious after all ... :\

Exhibit D: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= ... 8858812413

I can't describe how incredibly odd it is to see a rapper sing about how awesome his jewelry is in front of an ice cream truck. at the end of the video, just to make sure you portray a good image of your own culture you show the children thieving from the ice cream truck driver while he is distracted by a prostitute looking (I'm assuming relative of some form)

My questions are,
Are these people trying to be taken seriously?

Are they being taken seriously? Or is their popularity some form of mass joke?

Do people actually think this is "cool"

Do people inside of that culture realize how insanely ludicrous this all is and are asking themselves WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

I would like to end with not a rap but a spoken word Video I had found, discussing Popular Rap culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPNwkEjD7Y

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:19 am

Culture AND industry supporting it.

My explanation isn't really the rise of mass retardedness, so much as an industry that actively caters to it. I think the real difference between 20 years ago and now is the continuing growth of large music business. The 'urban' direction of this is purely coincidental.

Let's face it, as idealistic as we might like to be, it's not hard to sell this type of stuff to people. It corresponds very well with some very base instincts. And as soon as it gets to seem like it's basically fine and mainstream, there you have it. In Russia we call it "Popsa".

Yea, all of those are pretty bad, although the latter two (discounting the smart dude talking one) are at least tolerably so. The first two are just dehumanizingly bad.

What do we do? I don't know. Can you imagine trying to pull random kids on the street and trying to tell them "stop listening to this shit, here's some actual music"?

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:07 am

Otohiko wrote: Can you imagine trying to pull random kids on the street and trying to tell them "stop listening to this shit, here's some actual music"?

http://www.yhbtm.com/jt_ca.html

?

But yes i agree if it wasn't for the mass media being in a few hands i think we'd hear more variety...

Thank God for the CBC at least we get some non-corporate programing

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:13 am

any form of music will always be capitalized upon by people who have no interest in the music itself. to them its nothing more than potential profit.

requiett · Post by **requiett** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:18 am

The moral of the story is: If you listen to this stuff, you'll get cars with hydraulics, gold chains, respekt, and two bitches on every arm.

Gepetto · Post by **Gepetto** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:31 am

requiett wrote:The moral of the story is: If you listen to this stuff, you'll get cars with hydraulics, gold chains, respekt, and two bitches on every arm.

AND the brutha's and dawgs will fear you cuz u've been in da hood and you're packin' heat.

I admire the original rap music. Standing up and talking about how life really is for "da niggas" who are, in theory, treated the same as any other racial group. But the problem is, the stuff makes money.

Sit I'll have to cut this in the middle. Chemistry class.

requiett · Post by **requiett** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:45 am

Gepetto wrote:AND the brutha's and dawgs will fear you cuz u've been in da hood and you're packin' heat.

I already said respekt.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:21 am

http://www.ocweekly.com/music/music/thi ... nas/18901/

An attempt to explain one particular popular song. Might shed some light on the appeal to this kind of music.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:05 pm

Flint the Dwarf wrote:http://www.ocweekly.com/music/music/thi ... nas/18901/

An attempt to explain one particular popular song. Might shed some light on the appeal to this kind of music.

Amazing, This is deeper and more meaningful then i had first suspected...

Mabey the "Chain" is his referance to Jibbs' social status, and the fact 24 inches is how low he's "letting it hang" is a reverance to his low position in this society, and that it's HIS fault he's in that position...they only way he can raise himself up is through sacrafice and hard work.

the RED White And Blue mentioned later in the song must be a referance to the industriousness and the American Dream.

interesting Interesting.

8bit_samurai · Post by **8bit_samurai** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:15 am

Gepetto wrote: I admire the original rap music. Standing up and talking about how life really is for "da niggas" who are, in theory, treated the same as any other racial group. But the problem is, the stuff makes money.

x2

Got a nice collection of exhibits thar...

I know some people that thinks those are "cool" (except for exhibit B, never met anyone who thought it was "cool" and for C, it's the younger generation of females) but they come from a small rural town where the younger generation chooses to listen to hip hop/rap over other genres.

Do they take it seriously? I doubt it. Not as serious as emo kids taking Linkin Park seriously, or used to. Maybe not these songs anyway. Except for C, some of the female audience there probably do to an extent, or at least used to. As for A and D, they take it as serious as they do fashion, like a fad or something. This is based on the people that I know and not sure if it's applicable to others who listen to these songs.

There are probably some songs that are taken seriously, but I can't think of any at the moment.