Not too many things have changed since I left Spokane before Christmas. Upon my return, I found most things exactly the same. Which makes sense since most of the city had been shut down due to snow, and it's hard to make major changes when you can't get much farther in the world than your parked car on the other side of your sidewalk, snuggled below a two-foot blanket of snow. One major thing DID change, however. Spokane's only remaining hip hop/R&B station, 96.9, was replaced with country music... This makes me very sad. Less variety always makes me sad, but in this case, when I dearly love hip hop, it was even more devastating.
HOWEVER! As Scott mentioned to me, "They can't keep playing crap from kids like Solja Boy and think people will listen to it." And then I realized perhaps it was the right business move after all. It's not the absence of the station I am mourning, it is quality hip hop all together. I fell in love with hip hop during 2004-2005 when (I feel) hip hop had hit a prime. Quality tracks from all kinds of hip hop (dance, R&B, rap, island, west coast, east coast, dirty south) topped the charts all over the place! And now what do we have? Sixteen-year-olds who couldn't tell a lyric from a textbook (since they study neither). Even Tupac, who wrote some songs I'm not quite sure about, had a lyrical talent that makes me fall in love with his music over and over again. But seriously? A song about one's 'tippy toes?' Telling people to dance on your tippy toes? And then adding some sexist comments/instructions because, after all, they've made it big and that's what being famous is all about... Apparently. One thing's for sure: this epidemic of young, crap artists shows that no 16-year-old should be allowed to have any influence on the fashion/pop world. We get sunglasses written on with white-out (how is THAT safe when driving? Oh right! They're famous now, they don't have to drive themselves) and the sloppiest 'ensembles' you've ever seen.
But you know, America is capitalist and people do what makes them money. So I get it. If you want to make it big and people spend money on crap these days, why not make crap? Even a handful of my favorite artists (who were famous before this horrible low of hip hop standards) have betrayed true talent by cashing in with dumb, unintelligible, degrading tracks. BUT WHY RUIN SOMETHING SO WONDERFUL!? Just because people want to pay you to graffiti all the art inside The Louvre doesn't mean you should go ahead and do it.
AND! My final point, in retrospect I am glad (kind of) the station went out of business, because perhaps that points to yet another shift in the hip hop world, one that leans back to music that has depth, lyrics that incorporate thought, and beats that are born of inspiration instead of bank accounts. It seems the American populous (especially the younger ones, who, poor souls, have yet to hear what good hip hop sounds like) are speaking out. NO MORE CRAP! I can only hope that out of this lowly state, something new and wonderful can be born.
Fresh Washington Cherries available at Red Sky!
5 years ago
6 comments:
You just compared hip hop to the Louvre. I should smack you.
:)
See how you can make any comment nice if you add a little smiley-face??
:)
This is not only true in Spokane, but it seems to be happening all over the region. The once powerful radio station called " Jammin 95.5" started back in 1997, went bankrupt in 2007 when i think that the hip/hop genre started it's decline.
But as we age Caitlin, no music that is being produced now will be as good as it was when we were young. That fact is true with all generations.
Cait,
Just got my Newsweek today and it has an article about hip hop. I haven't read it yet - you can find it online at www.newsweek.com. It's titled A Hip-hop Survival Tip "If you want rap music with a shelf life longer than milk, take a listen to Q-Tip's 'The Renaissance.'" You'll have to tell us if you think the CD is Louvre quality. :)
Also, I disagree with John. I don't think it's a "fact" that all generations think the music of their youth is the best. Certainly some people might think that, but most people I know are perfectly willing to open up to new music and sounds. They may not like new music from the same genre they did when they were young, though. Speaking for myself, a lot of the music that I thought was amazing when I was younger, I now believe to be absolute drivel. So there's that.
I'm not sure if I agree with John either. The music that was produced when my parents were young (Bruce, Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson Brown, Elton John and the like) is JUST as good now as then. And SOME of the music I listened to is high school is still great (Smashing Pumkins, among others). But I suppose that's a testimony to hip hop's quality; not much of it has stood the test of time. SOME of it has, but not ENOUGH of it.
Cait as you know I have listened to hip hop all my life and I can say I havent liked what Iv been hearing for awhile. I still consider some of the albums i was introduced to as far back as 1992 as some of the greastest music ever made but sadly I feel those days are over. I have talked about this with my friends and they ALL agree with me. I would love go to go the club and hear the classics but unfortunatly that doesnt happen anymore. Its funny to cause when we do go out you notice how a lot of people who are general age dont dance to this crap when the old school classics come on everybody starts gettin down! Maybe soulja boy needs to pay attention to that.
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