I am listening to the Top Hits of 2007, and the first thing I notice is that out of the compendium of 98 songs, a solid majority of them follow the same tune and pattern, related to each other's works.
Kanye's and 50 Cent's techno-vibrations behind a few spewed, forced, and uncreative rhymes, which the new age, futuristic beats make up for or completely hide. There was an obvious trend toward Timbaland-sounding productions, and it is important to note that he was behind a lot of the top hits. Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, and OneRepublic just to name a few. Chris Brown, with Kiss Kiss, and Britney Spears with Gimme More followed suite with this sound. Instead of putting emphasis on the lyrics, these hits seem to do away with them all together, focusing the listener on who can come up with the most unique, techno-convoluted beats. Anyways, back to Kanye and 50 Cent - I don't think any two artists have bigger ego-trips than these two, or rather, there aren't too many more artists out there that are so egotistical in their music. We have P. Diddy, but he didn't make the list, which is surprising, but I think his songs are for crap. He will oversee a hundred artists, put them on his label, and all of them will have the same look, style, and voice. The women will be sexed-up poster ads for the "ghetto fabulous", and the guys will all have half-naked girls in their videos, speaking of "booty" and "partying" and "mazaratis" with "30 inch rims".
Speaking of "booty", you have tracks like "This Is Why I Am Hot" by MIMS and "Crank That (Soulja Boy)", "Lean Like A Cholo", and "Party Like A Rockstar", which all basically speak of one thing. Their lyrics are horrendous. I imagine that them and their little posse and "gangster" friends sit down, search their puny minds for something to say, try to find words that "match" (I emphasize this, because some of them have really bad rhyming skills and they go with words that "just go"), and then put them together like third-graders putting together Mickey Mouse puzzles, and say them with a little tinge of the voice, a little lofty melody in the background, and "tada!" you have your number one hit.
Alright, moving on. Fergie, of course. Rihanna, Taylor Swift. All rather annoying, but they created songs that personally are "catchy". They made songs that play on FM radio like its no one's business, and thus everyone's business. However, going back to OneRepublic.....their song, Apologize, in collaboration with Timbaland, had the record for the number one played hit on the radio.
Don't get me started on "Hey There Delilah". I love that song, but I can only take so much of it. Perhaps, because me, like my fellow teenagers, have an attention span of about ten minutes maximum. We constantly want to hear new songs, new tunes. A track that was released last month is seen as old "old".
Anyways, take a look at the hits this year. You have The Killers, Mika, The Fratellis, The Arctic Monkeys, Paul McCartney, Reba, Kelly Clarkson, and even foreign artists. I will have to admit. I like alot of these artists, and I don't care if they are mainstream or "sell-outs" or "posers" (with the exception of Avril Lavigne....really don't like her music). I really don't care. Green Day was on the list with their adaptation of "Working Class Hero" by John Lennon. I love Green Day.
So, what do you think?
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A lot of musicians follow the same song structure throughout their career, which is sad since some of them are just holding back their true potential. Take any Nickelback song, for example... and you can match it with most of their other songs. It's the industry milking musicians as much as possible. You get 1 hit, then you get the industry trying to get you to emulate it until you lose your sanity.
And there's also an image bias that attaches itself to the music. For example, the rappers are hailed when they sing about what the industry thinks they should sing about - women, bling, and more women. Then you get the rockers with the drug issues, the depression, etc... And lastly, the pop tarts that always have to be sugary sweet. It's fucked up.
Nicely put. Yeah, I agree.
"This is why I am hot, this why I am hot, this is why, this is why, this is why I am hot. I am hot cuz I am fly, you ain't cuz you not. this is why, this is why, this is why I am hot. I don't got to rap, I can sell a mil saying nothing on the track"
Basically MIMS's self-proclaimed philosophy.
Most songs on MTV are about the same thing. Pop songs are sweet little love stories, Rock songs are about being depressed because your lover left and rappers sing about sex and money.
I hate how the lyrics of songs like Party Like a Rockstar and THis Is Why Im Hot mean NOTHING important.
I would much rather listen to the the lyrics to a song like Never is a Promise by Fiona Apple or something political and interesting like INtervention by the Arcade Fire then an obnoxious THIS IS WHY IM HOT YEAH BLAH BL:AH BLAH
But for the record I like Kanye's beats-and his lyrics can be quite nice. The Killers are also cool.
<3surreal/ana
Yes, I like Kanye too.
What I don't like about Kanye is how much of an ego-maniac he is, and especially how he doesn't practice what he preaches.
For example, his song Diamond Mine meant nothing to me coming from him for 2 reasons: in a song where it's about black people being slaved to make diamonds, a rapper should not be singing it, because 85% of all diamonds are bought by rappers. Unless they haven't bought excessive amounts of jewelry, they're no exception. However, Kanye is especially a hypocrite because he wears diamonds to amazing excesses, and even has sold diamonds.
What I'd like to add is this: music isn't 100% the lyrics... it's 50% lyrics and 50% music, in my opinion. Sometimes, I listen to Satanic music that talks about murder and rape, but in that case, I don't even focus on the lyrics. I focus on the music. But with the music we discussed, it's usually that the beats AND lyrics are repetitive. It's a pain in the ass. It's made that way so musically illiterate people can feel as if they know music better than they really do.
I am music illiterate. I know nothing about music other than I like such-and-such songs, and I hate such-and-such artists.
I do play the piano and I have been taking lessons in Music Theory, but thats a different story, I believe.
I am usually the type of person who focuses on the beats, and I sometimes could care less about what the lyrics are, but when I take the time to listen to the lyrics and I don't like them or they seem offensive, then I usually just stop listening to the track, but I don't get offended easily and the lyrics would really have to insult my intelligence for me to stop listening to it.
i know this post might be kinda old, idk, but i'll comment anyways.
I do think there's a lack of musical education, at least i see that in Mexico. We are given flute classes in elementary and middle school. Thats it. There's no musical apreciation or anything, it mostly depends on the teachers the quality of the classes, and well in most public schools the teachers arent really good. And lower classes are the majority.
I consider music to be very important, one of the greater arts. To me is pretty important, and i think it should be to more people.
People should know when a song is musically good, its not all abut the lyrics, or the dancing beat, its about the quality of the musicians, the melody, and the way it has to transmit feelings, emotions, or ideas.
Musicians arent given the credit they deserve, at least good musicians
<3 sweetangerine/limelight
Hey Cris, thanks for the input. I know, real artists are not appreciated. And we don't get the kind of music education we want everywhere.
I'd say it's pretty good where I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. We get the opportunity for a good education with flutes and stuff like that in elementary school, and stuff like keyboards, guitars, drums, etc... in highschool. We even get this really cool course where you form a band with some students in the class. It's real cool.
So yea.. it's too bad we can't have this kind of education everywhere.
I like your post but..
what about all the conscience rappers? I love a kanye track at a party and I do belive in his beats but he samples a lot from other artists so if you want a well rounded veiw of hip hop I think that youve gotta look to real artists and poets such as Pras, common, Nas ect and accept SOME that mainstream 'gansters' like 50cent are just feeding a generation that loves a one hit wonder with a heavy beat.
And speaking of diamonds...
..and infact all gemstones. I studied gemmology last year and often the whole 'blood diamond' situation would come up and Its actually not at all a fact that 80% of rappers wear diamonds and even so, not all diamonds are unethical so as long as theyve bought them by a reputable dealer [which Kanye has said in the press that he does] then i think what they spend their money on is really their own business.
x ebonyvogues
[aka SLAMMIN]
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