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Recommended: Grunge culture
The Downfall of Today’s Music
The nineties began with the grunge scene, an alternative style of rock and roll that revolutionized rock music today. This music that was once praised by MTV was gradually pushed out to make way for the sound of generic rap beats, watered down heavy metal and sugar coated pop tunes.
The pattern of the nineties is nothing new. The seventies and eighties both saw fresh new music that preceded a pour attempt at a new innovative sound. In the seventies disco followed the likes of rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Pink Floyd. The eighties began with such innovative bands as Dire Straits, Van Halen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and ended with groups like New Kids on the Block and Milli Vanilli that overlapped into the early nineties. The nineties began with an original brand of rock, alternative. This style of music produced bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice and Chains that revolutionized rock and roll. Some of these bands are still around today but are over shadowed by the trendy pop and rap
The rock and pop groups of today are primarily concerned with an image they are trying to achieve through music videos. Bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn are chief examples of groups who try to attain a hard-core image but are failing. They claim to have a large underground following but in reality they are just another MTV band that is identified by its multi-million dollar music videos. If you have to spend that much money on a video you must be compensating for something. This is true with groups like the Backstreet Boys, N’sync and Brittany Spears. Without their music videos they would be nothing. The songs that these groups produce are very simple pop tunes that thrive off the bands look and fashion statements.
The rap music of today shares many characteristics of the pop/rock industry. They are primarily concerned with money. It is not about the quality of the rhymes being released but about how many they can put out in a year. The result is music that is very monotonous and thin. The albums are released so frequently that people never get a chance to realize how one-dimensional their favorite rapper is, and are buying their next album. The other side of the rap industry is filled with phonies.
What emerged after the explosion of rock and roll in the 1950s abandoned the roll and has now come to be known just as classic rock. This rock that was created following the decade of The King became a completely unique and different sound that changed the musical landscape and what was once a single, unified genre gave way for multitudes of variation in its sounds. These new sounds, that came mostly from abroad, had been notably influenced by the American rock of the 1950s, such as Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. These pioneers of rock came to be the essential reason for the arrival of the British Invasion and other sounds that defined the decade of the 1960s.
to mention the fact that rock music was not just created in the eighties, but has been
Rock ‘n’ roll and 20th Century Culture According to Philip Ennis, rock ‘n’ roll emerged from the convergence of social transformations which resulted from World War II (Ryan 927). Despite its pop culture origins, rock music is arguably one of the strongest cultural factors to develop in this century. Artists such as Lennon, McCartney and Dylan defined the emotions of a generation and, in the last decade, it as even been acknowledged by members of the establishment which it hoped to change as a major influence in the country. In order to understand how rock went from a sign of rebellion to a cultural icon, it is necessary to understand where it came from.
The rise of rock and roll into the limelight is to a large extent attributed to the teenagers of the 1950’s. Early rock music listened to by teenagers during the 1950’s was formed by blending together Rhythm and blues with country music. This kind of ...
Rock ‘n’ Roll Rock ‘n’ roll was a controversial yet fashionable genre of popular music that emerged in the early 1950s (America in the World, 1776 to the Present : A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History: Mâ€'Z, Index. 2016, p896-899.). Its origin is also started from the revolution of bourgeois. The younger generation had gone through the Second World War, though, the older generation had treated kids. Two generations that had each world war had divided. A lot of the pain and anger felt by the younger generation made them to resist against the social establishment. As a result, the war had created a gulf between generations but further reduced the gap between blacks and whites. The youth of the 1950s felt unconnected to their society and began looking at the world more globally, and also began looking for new role models who reflected their ideas and beliefs. They knew that ideas of old generation would no longer work in a modern society. Thus several young leaders stood out and took center stage that setting the pace for the direction of society and its music form that point on. At this time, technical innovations had emerged such as electric guitar and electric bass. This is the impetus of creation of music including rock ‘n’
The American rock band Nirvana impacted American culture and society by paving the way for the punk rock subculture into mainstream corporate America. Punk rock music stems from the rock genre but has its own agenda. The crux of punk rock is that it is a movement of the counterculture against the norms of society. Punk rock in itself is made up of a subculture of people who rejected the tameness of rock and roll music during the 1970s. (Masar, 2006, p. 8). The music stresses anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideas in its lyrics as well as scorns political idealism in American society. Before Nirvana unintentionally made punk rock a multi-million dollar commercialized genre of music, underground rock paved the way for the punk rock genre by creating core values that punk rockers drew upon.
In conclusion I feel authenticity in rock music has a huge part to play and although it is a very snobby culture of "we will like you until we've had enough" its still personal to every person and they have a choice to decide who fits into their perfect music world.
Music tends to follow the trends of its listeners; genres come and go with popularity. Rock and roll was considered to have its golden era in the 1960s (Rock and Roll). It stood out with unforgettable performances by Sly and the Family Stone, The Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Grateful Dead, Santana, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin (Rock and Roll). The Beatles were one of the top rock and roll bands. It is said that their music “combined the distinct sounds of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and others which shaped a sound that dominated the sixties with its creativity and style” (Holland 105). Jimi Hendrix brought a new style of music called “acid rock”. He changed the way music was played by experimenting with different melodies, different chord...
Rap’s Controversy The most popular new music to emerge from the ‘80’s was rap music. It first developed in the mid ‘70’s in New York City, and soon in other urban areas, primarily amongst African-American teenagers. It became very popular with the urban public and soon began to spread throughout the United States and much of the world. It replaced rock music as the creative force in music of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. However, as popular as it was then and it is now, the lyrics of many rap songs have caused controversy.
Hip-Hop/Rap is one of the biggest growing genres of today. From its early stages in the 1970’s to today’s pop culture, it has grown quite a lot. Unfortunately, it has developed a terrible reputation of drugs, violence, abuse, and gangs. When people associate Hip-Hop with things it is usually a negative image that comes to the person’s mind. Which is sad, Hip-Hop/Rap has a great artistic quality to them that gets so easily overlooked. There is true poetry and emotion behind these lyrics and beats, but not everyone is willing to sit down and listen to it. They quickly judge this music genre and the immediately dislike it without giving it a second thought. Rappers pour their emotions and their souls into their songs and it really speaks to people who would stop and listen to them. Hip-Hop/Rap has evolved over time. From the early stages of Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and others to today’s rap stars like Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. Each decades style is different but each style is still good. What really made Rap huge was the Sugarhill Gang’s own song called “Rapper’s Delight” the entire song is around 15 minutes long with just three emcee’s rapping, Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master G. An emcee is another word for a rapper. Most emcees are the head of whatever event is being taken place, kind of like people that do skits in a talent show to introduce the next act. Hip-Hop/Rap today is filled with emcees and rappers. Today we find a more complex and more diverse style than what we would find back in the 70’s. There are different styles to different rappers. Each one unique in its own way and it makes that rapper stand out compared to everybody else. Also, another thing today that is different from the past is the flow of a rapp...
Rap has been around since 1973, when Kool DJ Herc introduced this new mash of jazz, soul, gospel, and reggae. This culture has been focused around African Americans, and since has served as a voice for the underrepresented, that is spreading violence, alcohol, and drugs. In this genre the most popular and successful boast about who has murdered more foes as breezily as other artists sing about love. Rap music tells stories of drugs, violence, and alcohol. The youth of America is constantly exposed to this kind of music, and our teenagers are being desensitized to the effects of these stories.
In the eyes of the general public, all of Hip-Hop is usually categorized in the same way. Labeled as the poison of the Black community because nowadays, most Hip-Hop lyrics all sound the same generic way always talking about money, women, cars, drugs, or some type of beef that all these rappers sooner or later continuously have with one another. But what this new generation doesn’t know about are the positive and creative flows that were spit not so long ago in the 80’s and 90’s. Rappers back in the day like Tupac and Ice Cube both had times when they had to show off their thug sides but they both had reasons or a call-to-arms for that, and indeed were in tune with that era’s problems as well as the society where they were raised. Moreover, even though some new school songs actually look promising, old school songs are still always great classics that anybody in this day and age will most certainly vibe to.
Whether for the better or for the worse. Rap music has just as many as negative effects as positive effects within the lyrics of rap music. The lyrics that have built an entire revolution and culture among the human race. There has been speculation and there will always be those who doubt rap music, although the gap between who enjoys it and who dislikes is increases. Rap is making its way to becoming more and more relatable for all. So no matter the lyrics, all is relatable to those who listen to the songs as much as those who have created
The 1970s and 1980s was a pivotal time in hip hop history this period of time laid the ground work for modern hip hop and culture today. “In the early '70s, when I was about 13 or 14 and disco was monopolizing the mainstream airwaves, the rap movement was just being born” (The hip hop network). Early hip hop artist started making their way from the underground. Each artist made themselves stand out because their ability to relate to others. “In the early 80s, rappers began appearing on MTV and gained greater exposure. Run-DMC crossed over in mid-decade and the genre began appearing on the charts. In the early 1970s and 1980s hip hop music was used
Rock music into four sections: Rock of the 50's, of the 60's, of the 70's