Power Pros Forum

Wet Dreamz- J Cole

Nobody knows what it means, but it's provocative!

"Off Top" - Earl Sweatshirt

yo i gotta stop smoking backwoods

I don't lecture, I got enough of that from my older relatives (mainly my uncle) when I would listen to my 90's rock/alternative and be regaled with stories of the Beatles or Led Zeppelin and how THAT'S where this music came from. I was like, shutup, I'm 16, let me listen to what I like.

He was right, tho - some stuff I listened to was directly copied from that era, other parts were natural evolution. Still to hear a 35+ dude talk about music, when you are in your teens and LIVING it - it just doesn't work. I had to discover it for myself, and figure out what good music was and what it meant to me. Even if he was right, fighting a teenager on taste is never a winning proposition. They get reinforcement from pop culture, friends, the market, whereas being 30+ you're more out of touch.

I can't get for the life of me why rap seems to be so popular on this board tho? Like 95% of posts here are all xhy$$%^ featuring Wakka Flakka Flame or whoever. I grew up in New England in the 90s, not much rap influence there...is it geographic? Or just age based (assuming most here are 16-20)? Or just really what is popular today? Without getting into specifics, it does seem odd that there is so much music today, in so many genres, and yet people kind of gravitate towards beats and talking as their preference?

Not sure really, but it might just be personal taste. I don't listen to a lot of rap, my main genres are 80's, 90's, modern pop, some rock, and some alternative, but I don't necessarily switch the station if, say, Eminem comes on the air.

Out of this board's average demographic (15-18 year old male) rap is probably most popular. Followed by garage/indie rock I guess.

I've always been a fan of rock first and foremost, but a lot of the rap (which isn't much tbh) that I've been hearing lately is incredibly good. In fact I've heard way more rap albums that I've liked that came out this year than rock albums.

"Wesley's Theory"-Kendrick Lamar

r-Cali- A$AP Rocky (GTA V Rap Radio FTW )

John Gotti - Kevin Gates

Yep, good explanation there Paul. A ton of good hip-hop has come out recently (and a lot more is due this year, including Kanye's album).

"Mantra" - Earl Sweatshirt

I live in New England too. cultural dissonance really doesn't mean anything anymore with the advent of the InterNet. anywho, w/r/t hip hop, tell me there's no talent involved in these. You Can't. additionally, if you're gonna make the point that kids only like hip hop because it's some new kind of popular thing, hip hop came about in the early '80s. Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys and Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang were all GIGANTIC in the '80s. hip hop is not some weird new cultural phenomenon that's just appeared from the dust now that rock is "dead." don't get me wrong -- there's some awful stuff on the radio, but there's plenty of great stuff going on even there. most people who claim they hate hip hop and don't understand how people enjoy "fast talking to a beat" (not specifically targetting you, Alloutwar, although you are my reason for making this rant heheh) are probably just closing their ears to something they don't want to like.

like you said though, it's pointless to lecture someone in their formative years about not liking "the old stuff" or whatever. do you really think parents in the '70s were extolling the values of dixieland '40s stuff to their children? moreover do you think the children even listened if that did happen?

"Off This Century" ~ Unwound

This is awesome, mac Well said.

lol, more than think it - know it. If you have any baby boomers in your family, ask them about music in their formative years. When the Beatles came out ('62-'65), kids went gaga for it, and their parents thought they were nuts - they extolled the virtue of Big Band and Glen Miller. Kids and 'beatlemania' - what a fad. Great example of the older generation being out of their minds - and to your point, it had the opposite effect. "You just don't get it!"

About a generation later, kids were all into disco, then new wave and 80's, with synthesizers and simple changes, while their 60's-era parents told them it was crap. Well, looking back, the older generation were right on that one - the 80s were pretty terrible for popular music. It's a cyclical thing - sometimes the music really involves talent and has staying power, sometimes it doesn't. Only time will tell.

I used to listen to Bush's first CD ('91 or '92) and thought it was the best thing ever. I would sing along with every word and thought it matched my life, my experiences exactly. When I was 14, there was nothing better - screw my parents and what they thought. When I listen to it now....much different experience. Not a great CD, terrible lyrics, not even near a top-talent band of the 90s. It was just my headspace growing up...and it still has some emotional attachment because of it. Time and experience change your viewpoint. (being a musician might have an effect too)

When you guys are in your 30s, and your kids are listening to whale songs, or smooth jazz, or 5-piece-banjo arrangements, whatever the new top of pop culture is, you are gonna feel weird and displaced and out of touch. You are going to lack identification with it, and probably think it's worse than what you identified with. Such is the way of the world. Even being a musician, or a music aficionado, or working in a music studio won't save you - you'll still feel like a large percentage is simple crap.

All I would urge people to do is treat music like a journey, but also like a muscle...learn a lot, get exposure to a lot. The big companies want you to spend your time/money listening to Kendrick Lamar and Drake, or Taylor Swift and Katy Perry (and they are spending billions to make it happen). They want everyone to fight over what is better, like Coke vs. Pepsi. But that's a tiny fraction of the music out there. You wouldn't taste a rice cake and say "that's it, I'm eating this forever." Your ears and brain don't want rice cakes, they want nutrients.

Tonight, ask your parents if THEIR parents dug their music in their formative years. Sometimes things are cool and parents/kids find common ground, depending on the age gap and stodginess of the parent. If I had a kid that was 10 or 15 or something, I would probably be a very stodgy parent. No rap in my house. And no country either! Ugh.

(btw - I'm not really a 'rock' guy - definitely some proggy rock, but I endorse a lot of bluegrass, pop, roots/americana, and even some well done electronic stuff. And of course I go to the symphony and opera every chance I get)

Great examples. To add on to your point, those groups that you mentioned are still big (if not GIGANTIC) today. I agree that a lot of the hip-hop that gets played on the radio (especially pop stations) is crap, but if you look deeper, there's a ton of music that is way more meaningful. I can totally understand not liking hip-hop though, I didn't start listening to it until a few years ago, and now it's my favorite genre (although I certainly enjoy a lot of other genres: most classic rock, some pop, some electronic, and some modern rock mostly). But there's a GIGANTIC gap between the stuff you hear on the radio (99% of which is produced by the same two guys: DJ Mustard and Mike Will Made It) and a lot of other hip-hop like the four songs Mac linked to.

"Building Steam with a Grain of Salt" - DJ Shadow

most recognizable as the song from those Chrysler commercials [yay actual hip hop getting recognition in pop culture!!!]

everything else you said is all well & good (and I'm not sure why I phrased that '40s example like that, so I concede everything you said). all I ask is that you don't lump Kendrick Lamar (hell, even Drake) (hell, even Taylor Swift) (but that might just be because I kinda have a soft spot for the latter two) in with the Corporate "Music" Machine. Kendrick is one of the most authentic and envelope-pushing artists out there today. you may not necessarily agree with what he's saying but honestly I could see this To Pimp a Butterfly stuff becoming an important document of what's essentially the continuation of the civil rights movement today. of course, being a white upper-middle kid from the suburbs I can't really comment on what exactly it Means, but I do know that it's important. at least read the lyrics to "The Blacker the Berry" or something. it's very different from any pop rapper chugging booze and popping mollies &c.

I actually am in total agreement with you w/r/t age gaps, parents being perplexed by what their kids are into, etc. not sure if that's you converting me or just kinda typing without thinking the other day. irregardless, I'm into a bunch of stuff as well, I'm not exclusively into hip-hop (in fact I know the least about it of any umbrella genre) (and that's not even to say I know much at all -- MAYBE relative to other 16 year olds, but really, what does this even qualify me to do?). if I mislabeled you as a rock guy my bad! from everything I've read of yours on music I know that isn't the case. not even sure how I'm going to react to music my kids are into. I'll probably play a bunch of stuff around the house in a (probably vain) attempt to get them to somehow assimilate all my shit into their listening habits. and it most likely will not happen!

"Asleep" ~ Crash of Rhinos

"Complexion (A Zulu Love)" - Kendrick Lamar ft. Rapsody