"It's a sad commentary on our culture and society when the biggest thing in popular music is an ex-crack dealer whose claim to fame is being shot nine times, and one of the greatest entertainers in the world was on trial for child molestation. If that's not a sign of the coming Apocalypse, I don't know what is! And if 50Cent was really shot nine times, why couldn't one of those bullets have hit a vital organ? Who the fuck was shooting at him: Stevie Wonder? And as far as all these black rappers getting shot, how about a little equal opportunity violence here? Can't somebody pop a cap in Eminem's white ass?"
"Who can forget the uplifting messages of peace, hope and spirituality in the lyrics of Earth Wind & Fire? Or the social consciousness and protest messages in the lyrics of Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye? How the hell did we get from “Just to be Close to You Girl” to “Back That Ass Up Bitch”? How the hell did we get from “What's Goin' On” and “You Haven't Done Nothin' “ to “Me So Horny” and “My Hump”?"
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The only music I listen to in my car are Detroit's black stations. When I was my daughter's age -- 11 -- black parents and their children listened to the same music; this made black folks very unique in this regard. The unification of black folks and music played a vital role in the civil rights movement: DJs could reach everybody on a single station. At black family functions, people rarely fought over the music. Few if any objections arose on 1982 if the kids played Rick James or Prince, or if the parents played Earth, Wind, and Fire or Maze. Occassionally a drunk uncle might insist on a blues song, which would bring festivities to a halt, and agreement to a "one blues song limit"; that was about it.
Today I'm pretty stuck in '70s and '80s popular black music. In those days, adult fans of R&B were not stuck in the music of their own childhood. I think that most popular black music is disgraceful and abhorent. It celebrates violence, disrespect for women, and ludeness; there is no subtlty. I abhore it, and I doubt that it will live on.
In the 1980s there was a valant successor to Marvin Gaye: Frankie Beverly. Marvin Gaye in turn carried the mantle for Jackie Wilson. Who is today's Marvin Gaye? Is there one? Are there even any bands playing their own music? The songs that my daughter seems to like best on today's radio are shallow "remakes" of '80s songs; but they're not really remakes. They are ripoffs of some lyrics and beats. In the 80s people like Luther Vandross made real remakes: new interpretations of previous songs. Nadir has done this with a Teddy Pendergrass classic, Love TKO. Nadir's rendering is a remake, of the highest order. Nadir also has a band. When will Nadir make it to the radio? There seems to be other bands and artists like Nadir, but they do not dominate the radio like they did in the 80s and 70s and 60s.
In the 70s and 80s and before, blacks performing music created the impression of intelligent artists and master craftsmen. The original rappers continued this impression. Today's most popular black music peformers create the impression that young black people are violent, hyper-aggressive, ignorant libertines who promote and celebrate that impression.
I will go further and assert that as of the 80s, black music demonstrated major advancements, in the form of genius artists for which there was no precident, such as Prince and EW&F. What is there now? I'm sure you can point to some people like Alicia Keys, but she's an exception, and she doesn't dominate the charts. But go back and look at the old Jet Magazine "Soul Brother Top Ten" lists for the 70s and 80s. It was *DOMINATED* by artists whom all people can be proud of; today's top lists of music popular amoung blacks are dominated by people who are shameful.
The only music I listen to in my car are Detroit's black stations. When I was my daughter's age -- 11 -- black parents and their children listened to the same music; this made black folks very unique in this regard. The unification of black folks and music played a vital role in the civil rights movement: DJs could reach everybody on a single station. At black family functions, people rarely fought over the music. Few if any objections arose on 1982 if the kids played Rick James or Prince, or if the parents played Earth, Wind, and Fire or Maze. Occassionally a drunk uncle might insist on a blues song, which would bring festivities to a halt, and agreement to a "one blues song limit"; that was about it.
Today I'm pretty stuck in '70s and '80s popular black music. In those days, adult fans of R&B were not stuck in the music of their own childhood. I think that most popular black music is disgraceful and abhorent. It celebrates violence, disrespect for women, and ludeness; there is no subtlty. I abhore it, and I doubt that it will live on.
In the 1980s there was a valant successor to Marvin Gaye: Frankie Beverly. Marvin Gaye in turn carried the mantle for Jackie Wilson. Who is today's Marvin Gaye? Is there one? Are there even any bands playing their own music? The songs that my daughter seems to like best on today's radio are shallow "remakes" of '80s songs; but they're not really remakes. They are ripoffs of some lyrics and beats. In the 80s people like Luther Vandross made real remakes: new interpretations of previous songs. Nadir has done this with a Teddy Pendergrass classic, Love TKO. Nadir's rendering is a remake, of the highest order. Nadir also has a band. When will Nadir make it to the radio? There seems to be other bands and artists like Nadir, but they do not dominate the radio like they did in the 80s and 70s and 60s.
In the 70s and 80s and before, blacks performing music created the impression of intelligent artists and master craftsmen. The original rappers continued this impression. Today's most popular black music peformers create the impression that young black people are violent, hyper-aggressive, ignorant libertines who promote and celebrate that impression.
At any given time since the advent of recorded music, you could look at pop music and construct a narrative of decline. Inanity and frivolousness mark pop music; some manages to work wonders within those contraints. I'm thinking of those early pop Tin Pan Alley songs, whose cleverness were given so much poignancy by Billie Holliday and other jazz figures.
Yet there's plenty of good and great African-American music today: Outkast, Erika Badu, collaborations between Missy Elliot and Timbaland. Then there's a whole underground hip hop scene: Cannibal Ox (download "the f-word"), Anti-Pop Consortium (download "fuck rap"), etc, etc.
Meanwhile, I reject the idea that artists have the duty to "uplift," etc. Art that seeks to uplift is typically execrable. Uplift is a fine by product of an artist's realizing his/her vision; as a goal, the result typically counts as kitsch. (See "World, we are the").
Also, I think it's garbage to hold African-American artists to a different standard. I had a friend once, a white guy who was really into punk rock. He reveled in the scabrous nihilism of the Sex Pistols and their offspring. Yet gangster rap of the NWA style enraged him; he found it "irresponsible." Sure, there's gangster rap that trash; but the best work of say, NWA, falls in the tradition of the poet maudet, the anti-hero. The vision on offer might not be wholesome or uplifting, but it's fully realized and full of talent. So Johnny Rotten gets to spit beer at the crowd and fantasize about sodomizing the queen, and Ice Cube is supposed to be MLK? Fuck that.
Another group whom i think commands respect and will be listened to 20 years hence is the Wu Tang Clan in all of its many offshoots and manifestations. Those guys are geniuses, and it's fools who sleep on them.
Tom: I mostly agree with you. I certainly agree that artists have no duty to "uplift" anybody; but they do have a duty to uplift art. Do you have time to find Top 10 charts for pop and black music for various years? The people you admire seem regularly absent from either list. I would not mind if some small fraction of black youth were watching Johnny Rotten-type black artists, while black youth in general comprised a population of people succeeding in life, and while the rest of society were mostly watching Beatle-type black artists.
But black youth are in sorry shape. And what they're watching, and what everybody else is watching, of black musical performers are both articistially thin (wasn't and isn't Johnny Rotten highly regarded artistically?) and degenerate.
The real issue here is that payola accounts for the promotion of 80% of what we hear on the radio. Those artists who are peforming poigniant and marketable material, but who don't have the money to purcahse airplay and video play do not rise to the top. This has been true for decades.
There is great music out there, African-American and otherwise, that is not promoted to its full potential because the corporations that control radio deal primarily with the corporations who control the music industry. If the government actually enforced payola laws, and leveled the playing field, we would hear a marked improvement in radio playlists.
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