Rock and Hip-Hop: Two Worlds That Need a Drastic Change, No?


by Joe Christmas - Date: 2006-12-22 - Word Count: 548 Share This!

Ever get sick of listening to the plethora of contemporary artists on the American music scene today? The same old rock bands and singer-songwriters singing the same songs, in the same structures with the same voices we've heard, amounting to no message conveyed, over and over again. Rappers blurting out the same raps over an exaggerated crunk beat talking about what they got and how much respect they deserve. Yes there are always a few songs that strike a chord within us somewhere, but we need something new and different, something more meaningful and memorable. Whatever happened to artists that change the landscape of what music is and what it says? People that take risks, find new sounds and meanings and present what they find to the world and call it art. Artists like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, Sublime, Miles Davis, The Notorious B.I.G, NWA, Erik B. and Rakim, Nas, etc. These artists all had something unique about themselves that they developed and felt necessary to share with the world. They broke boundaries, they stuck it to the man and they all did something we all should do in our lives, SPEAK OUT. Are there any more dissenters out there? Does anyone know the meaning of avante-garde anymore? Do people know how much music really sucks nowadays? Has MTV ruined the music artist?

Looking upon today's rock scene, we see a dead one. Emo-rock is all the rage in many circles, bands with three -words, Fall Out Boy, Race the Sun, Saves the Day; bands that sound just like the next. Has anyone heard of Dime a Dozen? Shift to the singer-songwriter arena and we see much of the same; nothing new and nothing special, a few have taken bold strides, but they can be counted on one hand with three fingers missing. We have many talented artists, very talented, but none have caused a seismic shift; we have no inventors, no innovation.

Hip-hop has dominated the music scene for the last several years, probably longer, taking over the radio-waves and the party scene. In the early 90's, hip-hop started to become accepted as a form of art, lyrics and emotion meant a lot. After 2003 passed it started to become more about the beat. Everywhere you go to have a good time, people want to hear that beat, doesn't really seem to matter what the artist is saying. It gets people hyped up, it gets them moving and it is the life of the party, there is no disputing that. The person making the beats is just as important as the rapper, if not more; the producer has become the straw that stirs the hip-hop drink. A lot of people can talk about what they got over a hook-laden beat and sound good.

Has the music scene really died for good? Has the true artist gone to rest in favor of conformity? Of course not. In the history of anything, there are peaks and valleys, rises and falls, it is simply part of how progress works. Music will once again be about the artist and there will be revolutionary figures on the scene. Unless music decides to die, which it never will, there will be another golden age of golden artists.

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Related Tags: music, revolution, rock, hip-hop

Joe Christmas is columnist for The Castle of Music Newsletter. A revolutionary new organization that finds new emerging artists.

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