I second and third the emotions of two posts about music I’ve read recently. The first (Grown Folks’ Music) laments the music being played on radio these days. I gave up on radio long ago, but I remember loving to listen to radio (especially KDAY and KJLH) in Los Angeles when I was a kid. Now that was radio! Nowadays all the stations play the same ish over and over again. The conglomerates that own the radio stations control their play lists so tightly that it’s damn near impossible to hear any innovative music. But the advent of services like DMX Music and internet radio filled broadcast radio’s void nicely.
The second post ( I’m Supposed To Feel Sorry, Why? ) addresses the quality of today’s music, and the ridiculous prices being charged for that music. After flipping through my new Vibe magazine yesterday, I was ready to write exactly what’s in the ‘feel sorry’ post. I glanced at the ratings of some of the big-name releases, and they were weak, weak, weak. Big-name acts like the Neptunes and Beyoncé got 3 1/2 and 3 stars (out of 5) respectively. They should be able to buy their way to at least four stars. Out of the 16 CDs reviewed only one (one!!!) received four stars. Yet the labels expect people to pay upwards of $15 for those CDs. Is it any wonder that people just download the 2 good songs from an album and call it a day? Perhaps if they made a better product people would buy more CDs.
But seriously, I just wrote all of this to justify posting a picture of Beyoncé. 😉
Update: Speaking of Beyoncé, CNN just put up this article about her: The new queen of entertainment
I think there is a lot of truth in that post regarding the garbage that is on the radio. The biggest contributors to the influx of bad music are 1. Money and 2. Accessibility. We all agree that the money made in the rap game
has lead to the gratuitous videos where rappers toss out money like it doesn’t matter, knowing damn well they will be broke after their 1 hit is done (see David Banner).
The second reason is Accessibility. More than ever before mediocre artists have access to some sort of studio or digital equipment that allows them to create professional quality CD’s. Before studio time and production costs were so expensive only the big record companies could afford to create the music.
The X-factor to this entire concept is… WE ARE GETTING OLD! Did your parents like the music you listened to as a kid and their parents when
they were kids? Do you think the parents of teenagers thought James Brown and others were classic soul back in the day? No way. I think it’s an unavoidable symptom of getting old, everything in the current era isn’t as a good as it was when you were a kid.
Last point. I’ve always thought Beyonce was very attractive, but isn’t it funny how it’s now “in Style” to like her. A couple of years ago her and Destiny’s Child were getting dogged much like Ashanti is today.
You didn’t have to justify the picture posting. Just post the picture, we will understand.
Just send it to my personal Email! 😉