Today's Pop Music and the culture Supporting it.

[rubyeye]

The reason why anything is popular is the same reason why everybody panics in a crowded room when 1 person yells "FIRE"! People don't like to be left out, everyone likes to "fit in", generally speaking. We're social animals. Advertisers "TELL YOU" something is popular only to get you to buy it - it's self fulfilling (it then becomes popular because everyone bought it).

Anyway, just to answer your question: People are fucking stupid. That sums it up for you. A person may be smart and intelligent, but as soon as they start thinking like a collective, their IQ (and individuality) drops significantly.

Of course this is just my general rant on the poor state of humanity. I'm no social anthropologist, but I do know a few professors who study mass media culture. Fascinating stuff actually.

[Otohiko]

Wouldn't say it's a 'poor state' of humanity, so much as a 'human state of humanity' that a lot of people aren't comfortable with recognizing.

Here's a question:
What music do you think is the alternative to modern-day popsa? Surely hard punk or death metal wouldn't work for most people, awesome though some specimens of that may be...

[megaman917]

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.

Not really, he's just bragging about his jewlery. Not every hip-hop song has a deeper meaning. However, I could be wrong.

All four exhibits have one thing in common, these artists are from the southern states. Just like how metal has, only God knows how, many sub-genres, hip-hop and some R&B has its sub-genres/styles, one of which is southern rap/hip-hop. This style and its sub-styles, (which generally differs from artist to artist), generally differs from the styles of those who are not from the souther states.

2006 has mainly featured artists from the "Dirty South". Southern rappers have their own style. A good amount of Southern rap, from what I've seen, isn't really meant to have a deeper meaning at all. It's simply meant to be feel good music, music you can dance to, music to get your significant other 'in the mood'.

Exhibit A: "Wait (The Whisper Song)" by Ying Yang Twins: Is there any deep meaning? In my opinion, no. The Ying Yang Twins generally make feel good & party music. This song in particular basically talks about getting you wife/girlfriend/date/hooker/significant other to your home/hotel/whereever, drink some champagne, whisper sweet nothing in her ear, and have sex; hence, the reason they are wispering the lyrics, and why it's called "Wait (The Whisper Song)".

Exhibit B: "Laffy Taffy" by D4L: Is there any deep meaning? Not as far as I can see. However in a televised interview, D4L explained that they are/were trying to show/prove that hip-hop isn't all about being gangsta, doing drugs, getting trouble with the police, etc, as potrayed in many a rap song by many gangsta rappers. If I remember correctly, they also mentioned that they were trying take hip-hop back to its roots or back to basics by using basic repititive beats, feel good/party lyrics, etc.

Exhibit C: "Lonely" by Akon: A story is being told. Personally I didn't bother listening to the rest of it to find out what Akon was trying to get across, aside from being lonely. IMO, this not one of Akon's bests.
Akon is an R&B singer, who will sing about ghetto life, partying, romance, and real life situations; on his own songs. Akon is also featured on the chorus of many rap songs, making him sort of like the new Nate Dogg.

Exhibit D: "Chain Hang Low" by Jibbs: Jibbs is simply bragging about his jewlery. If you go to any predominantly black neighborhood, you will see a lot of guys wearing jewlery; whether it's gold/daimond chains, watches, rings, grills (that cover your teeth), etc.

To answer all the questions proposed above:
People inside the culture may only be concerned with listening to what they like, and may ask similar questions and bring up similar arguments about your general preference in music. And only those who are in a given culture will be able to best explain and shed light on said arguments to best of their ability.

That's the way I see it.



I'll might add more later.

[nailz]

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)

When you put it like that, it does in fact, make the video absolutely ludacris (LOL RAP PUN!). I actually could not believe how absolutely facinated this guy was with his jewlery. Worse, I think, was the children singing. "Do your chain hang low?" Isn't the misconception that speaking ebonics makes you fucking stupid enough that these people would understand it creates stereotypes of the entire black community when you can't SPEAK PROPER FUCKING ENGLISH? It really annoys me less from Rappers than it does from sports figures conducting interviews.

All aside. Whats the deal with his teeth? Does anyone else find that absolutely revolting?

[Gepetto]

Just like how metal has, only God knows how, many sub-genres

I believe the Wikipedia calls those "weasel words". You didn't say it up front but you imply that Metal is too poor a music style to have proper "sub-genres".

The differences vary from the category of subjects to the emphasis given to guitar/drum solos, use of instruments like flutes and violins, proportion of the song's lenght that has vocals, predominant tempo, pitch and aspect of vocals, lexic style, metrification and other aspects. For example, in Power Metal the lyrics usually tend towards the "epic" style, and the solos are long and fast. Progresive Metal lyrics are usually metrificated and make a point of always rhyming words that are more or less in disuse, and the tempos are "irregular", like 16/8, as oppsoed to your usual 4/4 or 3/4. Death Metal vocals are the characteristic "growl and grunt" that is stereotipically associated with metal in general.

And yadda-yadda-yadda.

I know I'm swaying off-topic here and I don't want to turn this into a discussion of what music style is "best", but allow me to say that metal (and most other musical genres) is a lot more content-rich than songs about bling-bling and clever phallic euphemisms. Enphasis on "clever".

Back to the topic at hand, for now I'll just agree with rubyeye while these streams load...

And requiett, I missed the "respeckt". My bad.

[Otohiko]

And let's not forget that we're talking more about the sociocultural implications than stylistic preferences here. In which case I'm sure not all forms of metal or whatever would be entirely 'clean', either.

What concerns me is that this type of 'exhibit' we have here is far more influential and, in my view, reflected in the behaviours of the average sucker.

[megaman917]

Just like how metal has, only God knows how, many sub-genres

I believe the Wikipedia calls those "weasel words". You didn't say it up front but you imply that Metal is too poor a music style to have proper "sub-genres".

My apologies. I had no intention of implying anything of the sort. I guess Ishould have put the comma after the word 'many' instead of before it. Based on several threads that I've come across here in the Music forum, metal has a long ass list of sub-genres (correct me if I'm wrong).

The differences vary from the category of subjects to the emphasis given to guitar/drum solos, use of instruments like flutes and violins, proportion of the song's lenght that has vocals, predominant tempo, pitch and aspect of vocals, lexic style, metrification and other aspects. For example, in Power Metal the lyrics usually tend towards the "epic" style, and the solos are long and fast. Progresive Metal lyrics are usually metrificated and make a point of always rhyming words that are more or less in disuse, and the tempos are "irregular", like 16/8, as oppsoed to your usual 4/4 or 3/4. Death Metal vocals are the characteristic "growl and grunt" that is stereotipically associated with metal in general.

The differences in hip-hop's sub-genres vary from artist origins/roots, subject matter (for some artist), types of beats, lyrics, how the lyrics are worded and used, etc.

I know I'm swaying off-topic here and I don't want to turn this into a discussion of what music style is "best", but allow me to say that metal (and most other musical genres) is a lot more content-rich than songs about bling-bling and clever phallic euphemisms. Enphasis on "clever".

Hip-Hop has a lot of content rich songs, it's just a matter of finding them.

[Fall_Child42]

megaman917 ... are you yourself more into that particular subculture? Your explanations are probably accurate, (though i'm not sure that ID4's explanations are as well thought out, for as far as i know the roots of hip-hop were coming out of a certain jazz, turned rebel commenting on the ills their particular minority were facing at the time.)

Of course I'm not excluding other forms of music of being guilty of this...

Lest the metal fans forget the Cartoon Factor that got pumped up During the 70-80s what with (to quote a favorite spoken word artist of mine)

"In the good corner there's bands like Stryper Throwing bibles into the crowd and oh aren't their Farah Faucet wigs as lovely as Charelie's angels themselves?
and in the other corner we have the EVIL metal bands that speak of blood and Satan and horns like SLAYER and 10,000 other bands that sound exactly LIKE slayer. "

he goes on to describe the "next big thing in metal" as Islamic Metal
(it is a very entertaining speech dripping with sarcasm)

as for the capitalist reasons behind this music, I can totally see the white guys in business suits who "know what kids want" sitting in a meeting drinking their $7 starbucks grande mocha lattes and one of them stands up and says "urban kids like jewelery right? let's have one of these guys rap about their jewelery" yeah yeah awesome ... then they all get in their Porche SUVs and go drive down the street to by some congratulatory cocaine before going home to the wife and kids.

I guess what I'm really wondering is how have we as a culture become so willing to accept and celebrate it?

To what extent is this influencing or influenced by the culture from which it comes?

[megaman917]

megaman917 ... are you yourself more into that particular subculture? Your explanations are probably accurate, (though i'm not sure that ID4's explanations are as well thought out, for as far as i know the roots of hip-hop were coming out of a certain jazz, turned rebel commenting on the ills their particular minority were facing at the time.)

If you're asking me if I'm a hip-hop head, then yes. Do I carry myself the way these rappers do, with expensive jewlery, being gangsta, etc., I do my best not to. I personally can't see myself doing everything they do. But as far as clothes go, I try my best to look fashionable, but not over do it, and not wear what a lot of others are wearing. Clothing is another subject, which I'm not gonna go any further into.

"In the good corner there's bands like Stryper Throwing bibles into the crowd and oh aren't their Farah Faucet wigs as lovely as Charelie's angels themselves?
and in the other corner we have the EVIL metal bands that speak of blood and Satan and horns like SLAYER and 10,000 other bands that sound exactly LIKE slayer. "

he goes on to describe the "next big thing in metal" as Islamic Metal
(it is a very entertaining speech dripping with sarcasm)

This right here can start another thread questioning the appeal of metal, bringing the same/similar arguments and criticisms (started in this thread) about metal.

as for the capitalist reasons behind this music, I can totally see the white guys in business suits who "know what kids want" sitting in a meeting drinking their $7 starbucks grande mocha lattes and one of them stands up and says "urban kids like jewelery right? let's have one of these guys rap about their jewelery" yeah yeah awesome ... then they all get in their Porche SUVs and go drive down the street to by some congratulatory cocaine before going home to the wife and kids.

By the end of the day many rappers will say that the wife & kids are most important and need to be taken care of, and that's why they do what they do; or something along those lines.

I guess what I'm really wondering is how have we as a culture become so willing to accept and celebrate it?

To what extent is this influencing or influenced by the culture from which it comes?

That right there is food for thought.

My expanations may not be entirely accurate, and maybe someone else can break it down a lot better than I can, but like I said before, I can only explain it/break it down to best of my ability/to the extent of my (limited) knowledge. (I generally listen to what sounds good to me and never really think about analyzing it, wonder about its appeal, etc.)
Had this thread been about metal, metal heads would try to explain it/break it down to best of their ability/extent of their knowledge.

[nailz]

I can totally see the white guys in business suits who "know what kids want" sitting in a meeting drinking their $7 starbucks grande mocha lattes and one of them stands up and says "urban kids like jewelery right? let's have one of these guys rap about their jewelery" yeah yeah awesome ...

I can't imagine even RAPPERS having so little dignity that they'd degrade to writing songs based on what their record company tells them to write songs about.