1. "RE: Been years since a good art vs. entertainment thread" In response to Reply # 0
I generally try to keep a broad mind re: the fine line between art/entertainment... it's all registers, all context...
*but* I think a key indicator of popular music today is how unyieldingly self-referential it is, self-referential in a way that isolates it from virtually any reasonable understanding of "average" daily life...
Watch the Throne may be one of the more blatant symptoms of that isolation, but it's hardly restricted to hip hop... it's pervasive. And while it's not at all new, it seems ubiquitous at this point, impossible to escape. Every song I hear on popular radio is about the dream party, the life of luxury, the life of the pop star, depicted in a totally unrealistic and unattainable manner... which limits its usefulness outside a certain listening context/mood/scene...
Art is an inherently elitist medium of communication to some degree, but when it stops putting on even the pretense of meaningfulness... I don't know, it's hard for me to try to take it seriously.
Most popular music these days seems vacuous to my ears. It's like candy as opposed to a meal. very little substance and not much talent either. People can't write songs, can't sing and don't play any instruments. beyond that most of the performers don't really have anything to say worth thinking about either.
I read in the paper that war will bring peace. --- Meshell Ndegeocello
9. "1999 in popular music:" In response to Reply # 3 Tue Apr-10-12 11:20 AM by lonesome_d
-the re-emergence of teen pop as the dominant market force -pop-punk goes big time -the ill-named "Latin pop movement" -"Supernatural" -rap-rock and nu-metal come on strong
10. "I'm not sure that aspect of the industry has changed" In response to Reply # 0
>Like is it possible that this perceived decline in >'good' music is because of the high stakes popularity contest >the industry has become?
but the industry as a whole has changed. I think numerous times when this subject has been approached, it's under the idea that there is much less room for failure in the business.
it's part of what you get from Kelly Kel hereabouts in his rundowns of the past decade, the formula for success, and his overwhelming lament of not being (able to be) part of something "consensus popular" and modern.
we might have discussed ad infinitum about the reasons why that isn't happening today. and IMO, I think the industry is largely to blame for the current state of affairs.
for the record: I don't really think new music in 2012 sucks. in fact I think we have many artists that seem to "get it" out there versus but a few years ago. it's just a much smaller audience than we're used to will be able to hear them due to a number of factors. I think rap, in particular, is way better than the POO POO that many of us were fed early in the decade prior. Sure, I don't personally have that new "DOOM" artist that I immediately latch-on to but I'm sure I'll find something.
I think you'll find more Frank Oceans out there than anything else in the coming years. After reading the semi-puff piece on him and his road to the spotlight, I learned a few things about him in the process. More than his influences, and all the biographical sketch stuff... I found his interest in becoming a songwriter first and foremost intriguing, and even more so, finally saying "eff it" and throwing his album to the dogs while it gathered dust (with help from some of his friends in OF).
they won't sell a lot of records unless majors vulture 'em but they can apparently get a lot of press otherwise. sounds like the old days.
>started when cost of production went down while return on >investment went up. i wish i had time to source numbers, but >bascially the music industry created a huge bubble >pre-internet which set their expectations for sales super high >(think of those platinum plus debuts). We forget this was all >before the internet. they were risking big budgets for quick >high returns and it was working. so they repeated it. then >the internet popped up (around the same time consumers were >wising up to the glut) numbers drop back to *normal* but the >expectations stay high. since then it's been basically a free >for all, trying to live up to those past expectations. but >those were all very controlled case studies. today they don't >have half the control.
it was a bubble, and this is the result of it bursting
12. "link me to the Frank Ocean piece pls." In response to Reply # 10
_______________________________________ When discourse of Blackness is not connected to efforts to promote collective black self determinism it becomes simply another recourse appropriated by the colonizer
19. "all you 'good music is out there' motherfuckers need to show and prove" In response to Reply # 16
link me to some
_______________________________________ When discourse of Blackness is not connected to efforts to promote collective black self determinism it becomes simply another recourse appropriated by the colonizer
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