Counterpoint: How To Have Hipster Music Tastes, By Jeremy Azevedo Of MongoNation.com
A Friendly Counterpoint By Jeremy Azevedo of MongoNation.com
Country Sucks, Except Old Country
The reason why people express a dislike of modern country has little to do with the music itself and everything to do with the fantasy of having lived the life that the music represents. This is a problem that affects many genres of music (punk rock, gangster rap, etc.). An old song by The Outlaws or the Highwaymen evokes images of lone gunmen, saloon drinkers, people of the earth. This imagery has become distasteful to the record distributors, who find it easier to market hollow love ballads and what passes for blue-collar nostalgia. Are people still making the “old country” I’ve described? Hank III and Shooter Jennings are, but it has evolved into something that the mainstream has moved away from or outgrown.
Additionally, the characters that populate the music scene do not have strong enough personas to carry the imagination of audiences over generational lines. While it was endlessly annoying to hear all those goddamn hipsters talking about Johnny Cash when “Walk the Line” came out, the fact remains that the man warranted an Oscar winning biopic being made about him. Will the same ever be said for Shania Twain? Or even Garth Brooks? These are not people that are living the romanticized “country life” as we imagine it. They live in nice suburbs, go to Hollywood premieres, and drive hybrid cars. These are not people that we can live vicariously through, not the larger than life symbols that differentiate an artist that sells records from a bonafide legend. The best that modern country can produce for the cinema crowd is “Beer For My Horses”, in which Toby Keith goes around talking in a phony accent while trucks explode. Awesome?
Yee-Haw! Lets go shoot us some ding-dang ‘ol cans and shee-it, right after we stop of at Starbucks and Maybe Bed bath & Beyond if we have time!
Old School Rap and Punk
As for old school rap, I agree that the first few documented groups do not sound good now. They are not remembered for their skills, however, but for their contribution to developing a new style that others expanded upon. Many of the second-generation rappers, however, are quite listenable today. Some of these would include Eric B. and Rakim, Nice & Smooth, and The Black Sheep, which are sort of like “The Refused” of rap. So far ahead of their time that the were buried beneath the weight of those that cribbed their style in the coming years.
This same phenomenon exists in punk rock. While The Clash and The Sex Pistols are not really that great in retrospect, what they were doing was very different and very challenging to society at the time. Does this make it fun to listen to as anything other than a history lesson? Not really. But on the other hand, I still to this day have not heard a better punk rock band than the Buzzcocks or The Stooges.
Underground Hip Hop
Most people that listen to underground rap will not tell you that it is necessarily “better” than mainstream rap, only that it is different. While mainstream rap is shackled by it’s reliance on record sells and club plays, the songwriting is limited to topics that fall in line with what is already well worn territory. As a genre, it has become more about selling a product, be it a clothing line, an energy drink or a video game, than it is about making music. Look no further than 50 Cent, Jay-Z, P. Diddy or Lil’ Wayne for proof of this. Underground hip hop merely gives artists a chance to experiment with different styles of flow and cadence, lyrical content and sample rhythms that are don’t necessarily have to be designed to be club bangers. Does this often result in a total clusterfuck? Yes it does. But it is still necessary for the industry that the alternative exists.
Cage, a very good independent hip-hop artist, doing his part to make rap accessible to the white people featured above.
On Black Flag and The Ramones
I agree that Black Flag are not good musicians. But Henry Rollins is an excellent writer of lyrics, and went on to greater success as a solo artist in the Henry Rollins Band. Listen to “Weight” and see if you don’t agree. And while I agree that the Ramones are most certainly pop music (it’s more 50s sock hop than punk rock), Blink 182 are nowhere near in the same category. What they are doing is playing unskilled 3-chord renditions of a 20-year-old style of music with lyrics aimed at titillating 12-year-old girls. Adults that listen to Blink 182 are possibly regressive, and probably also like watching Pixar movies and playing collectible card games.
Rock Music in General
Unless record companies put more effort into cultivating bands with real talent and potential for growth, the industry as a whole will continue to suffer. Where are the great bands of our generation? Is Radiohead it? I don’t know one regular person who can name a Radiohead song other than “Creep”. Where are the Led Zeppelins, the Rolling Stones, and the bands that appease both the hipsters and the regular folk in equal measure? How many more Coldplays and Rev Theorys and Arcade Fires must we suffer through before another Lynard Skynard or The Who comes about? Where are all the really good bands? When can we stop arguing about when and where things went wrong and get back on track?
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