The Music Of The STREET Must Change! It's OVER!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OK. I have had it.
It has been going on long enough. Two decades to be factual, in fact, which is too decades too long so it is time for a change.
It is over done, outdated, boring, far too repetitive, and starting to become obnoxious. It long ago used up it’s quantity of coolness and is now running on inertia simply because people are too stupid to think of anything new.

Like the folk songs of the 50s and 60s, it has become yesterdays news and last years ‘in’ thing.

What am I talking about?

Why the Street Thing, of course.

I’m tired of ‘Street’ music, ‘Street’ faces, ‘Street’ lingo, ‘Street’ dress, ‘Street’ songs, ‘Street’ rap, ‘Street’ games, ‘Street’ attitudes, ‘Street’ movies, ‘Street’ poetry, ‘Street’ dancing, ‘Street’ living and ‘Street’ anything.

I don’t find it cool, happening, in or with it. I find it annoying, obnoxious, rude, crude and out of date.

A black guy on TV advertises on how to learn his new ‘Street’ dance, which is basically garbage and who cares. White guys advertise their new ‘Street’ rap and dress like thugs, pronouncing 'R’s like 'W’s, wearing ‘Street’ faces and going home the their mansions which are far off of the Streets they sing about.

I got news for you people!
The Streets are not cool, happening or with it, but dirty, crowded, dangerous and uncaring. Polluted too.

It is time for a change in music and dress. Down with the Ghetto Hand-me-down look, away with the ‘Po Hispanic dress, baggy pants with the knee level crotch are passe,’ oversized sneakers stink just as badly as regular shoes, and gangsta life is not glorious.

We are in the 21st Century people! It is time to act more modern! Time for new music, new dress, new faces and better clothing. I see more people wearing hip hugging jeans with flared legs and platform shoes, but then they throw on an oversized ghetto jacket on top of it all. The celebration of poverty is over! That wise man sipping wine on the street corner is really a drunken bum and not a guru after all. His breath stinks, he has not bathed in a month, his pits reek, his teeth are rotten and his liver is shot and he probably has crabs and VD. Those battle scars he has are from being a nasty son of a bitch and poking his nose into places where it did not belong and not from fighting injustice.

That ‘1000 mile’ stare of his is simply from drinking gallons of MD 20/20 and not from any earth shattering philosophy or from fighting the good fight. HE gave up the fight long ago and replaced it with cheap booze and drugs.

Now he is a street philosopher.
Go figure.

Time for a new beat, a new look, new songs, new faces, new dress, new attitudes and new philosophies.

The next person who assures me that all ‘da wisdom is in da stweet’ is going to get punched out by me.

Gangs are not cool. Shooting gang signs while rapping is not cool. Gangs are bloody, nasty groups of miscellaneous uncaring people who like by an unrealistic and brutal code made up out of demented, overheated imaginations fueled by drugs and immaturity.

Time to sing of other things; to stop wearing pants down around the knees and underwear up around the nipples, to start looking good instead of bad, to sing happy songs instead of bloody ones, and where in the hell did the singing groups go that actually used their own bands and played their own instruments?

Any immature group of people growing up on a specific type of music will learn to love that music, so it is time to change the music and make it better.

Let the music play, … we’ll find a better way…

Join me in my efforts to change the garbage music we have and bring us out of the stinking, filthy ghetto and into the New City and times where a drug dealer is not an honored man and screwing over your fellow man is not a way of life.

It is time for a change!!

2

I’m with you, man. But what can one person do? I’m anxiously awaiting the next lame overdone style just because the current (OLD!) one is so bad.

3

Wurd

4

Maybe it’s up to parents to not let their kids wear those gigantic pants, etc. But good luck on that one! :rolleyes:

5

I hate that TNN commercial where some cloddy young man is being interviewed and his phone goes off and he answers it with ‘wud up dude.’ I’m tired of all of this street stuff and the more of you who verbalize your wearieness of it, the better because others, feeling the same, will read it and spread the word once they discover that they are not alone. Hell, a few radio stations started the movement the killed off Disco and some college students started the wave against the Hippies that ended the Free Love generation.

YOU have the POWER within your fingers and hands to end this mess.

6

And you consider this a good thing?
A few radio stations basically began segregated airplay to get rid of “disco” “soul” “funk” any music that white suburban boys couldn’t relate to. The anti-disco “movement” you speak of is the reason Michael Jackson couldn’t get played on MTV in the early days- they actually admitted it was because he’s black [sub]or at least he used to be.[/sub]
And what is your “new thing” you are hoping to have replace “street music”? White boys with guitars, how original.

7

I don’t know how you managed to get race into this post, considering that it is not racially oriented, but you did, you sicko.

Me, I want good old fashioned Rock 'N Roll back, the music that moves the soul, some Heavy metal, maybe a combination of Disco dance and 80s rock, where groups had their own, regular bands and did not spastically gyrate across the stage in a sick rendition of street dancing that resembles droplets of water skittering across a searingly hot griddle surface.

I want beat and soul back into the music, people who play their own instruments and dances that make sense and clothing that is not from the ghetto. I want black and white singers who look cool without trying to look tough, who look like they are happy and enjoy singing their songs.

It is time for night to set on the current genre and time for the sun to rise on a newer version because ghetto crap music sucks and there is no glory in the ghetto and we are all tired of hearing about drug dealing street heroes or basketball playing street philosophers. I don’t want to hear about bitches and homiez, playerz in da hood, popcorn pimps or stylin and profilin’ anymore.

I hate basketball and basketball nets with chain link baskets are not a thing of beauty. Neither is living in a $200 a month rat hole while driving a $50 car with a $10,000 stereo system in it, or wearing $2000 gold chains while collecting welfare. Fighting with the Super is not cool nor is writing graffiti on tenement halls and subway walls.

8

I didn’t mean to inject race into your post, what I was trying to point out is that taste is not universal. Some of us consider rock to be tired and played out, some consider disco to be foul. If you don’t like “street music” the simple solution is to not listen to it, which judging from your perception of it you haven’t.

If you are complaining about the homogenization of radio airplay, you have a point, but it has been that way for a long time. The music you seem to want a return of (Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin) was force-fed to the public when it was popular. While I may not be a fan of the boy and girl bands who don’t play their own instruments I have to acknowledge that much of the music is well produced and surprisingly complex.

By the way, Billie Holliday played no instrument [sub]other than her voice[/sub] Ella Fitzgerald didn’t play instruments. Their music isn’t soulful? Enuf-Z-Nuff did play their instruments, so by your standards they were an incredibly moving spiritual band?

9

Wow, strawman city! I didn’t see omnivore say anything about Aerosmith, and I didn’t see him pining away for the halcyon days of poison or warrant, either. It really is amazing the way some people will always find some way to squeeze race into every argument.

He wasn’t advocating any particular style of music, but berating the street-trash that you see perpetuated on tv and radio now. Take a walk through downtown Paterson, NJ tonight. Go ahead, it’s Saturday night, so you’ll be able to see ‘da street’ in all its glory. Drunks, gangs, thieves (of all colors), and drugs galore will be there. Look around that beautiful street and see how much trash is on the ground, in the Passaic river (so clogged up with f-ing garbage that the water can barely flow, not that you’d want that polluted water flowing near you anyway…), take a look at all the beautiful houses that have fallen so far into disrepair that it won’t take a hurricane, but only a stiff breeze to knock them into heaps of rubble. The street is full of trash (of all colors), and it’s a trashy way to live. What you can learn on the street includes drugs, violence, hate, and resentment. There’s nothing glamorous about it.

That’s the point that Omnivore was making (if you’ll allow me to speak for you). But predictably, somebody brings up race:

Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had a strong grasp of music, and they didn’t use drum machines or sequenced sample tracks. Then had (big surprise coming up) bands backing them up, with real instruments. Singers don’t exist in a vacuum.

Anyway, how do you know omnivore wasn’t longing for the radio to play King’s X, Living Color, Sevendust, Sam and Dave, Howlin’ Wolf, and George Clinton?

You race-obsessed people really get under my skin. If you look for something hard enough, you’ll always seem to find it. Even if it’s not there.

10

Elmer Fudd is a gangsta rapper?:confused:

11

l

Perhaps becasue every single thing you mentioned as “bad” is associated with one race and everything you say is “good” is associated with another? I am sure you can come up with a million excuses as to why you are completely okay and some of your best friends are black people and all that, but honestly you arn’t fooling us, and I’d hope that you have an IQ high enough to realize you aren’t even fooling yourself.

Because head-banging, moshing, and the freaking hustle make sooooo much more sense than all that darn street danceing. Nothing spastic here, officer!

I feel your pain. All those darn “street” singers just don’t smile and tap dance like they used to! What is all this talk about living in poverty and hopelessness? What we need from those folks in some good entertainment

I am totally with you! Nothing those people have to say is important anyway! So what if people are stuck in these terrible living conditions? So what if their lives are filled with violence, their children don’t have access to entertainment and they face racism wherever they go? I’m sick of hearing about it! Their lives arn’t important! Their thoughts arn’t half as important as good white (oops- I mean non-ghetto) artists like Aerosmith!

Yeah, basketball does suck. They should all be waterskiing or playing lacrosse- or at least golf! I mean if Hootie can do it, so can they!

And what is it with living in the ghetto, anyway? Why do they insist of living there instead of some nice, decent place? I know they do it just to be cool. Well they don’t fool me! I won’t put up with them forceing me to listen to their “street” music anymore. I cannot abide it’s existance. It’s not like I can just change the dial on the radio station! It’s not like there isn’t a huge variety of music and styles out there for me to choose! I must rant and rave alongside you against this “street” music!!!

12

Only one race destroys, litters and pollutes neighborhoods? Who’s the racist here? I live in a shitty neighborhood, but I don’t just throw my trash on the ground. That’s not a matter of race or affluence, it’s a matter of not being a disgusting fucking slob.

13

The reason I brought up race in the first place is that the “anti-disco” movement Omnivore seems to feel was so noble was at it’e base racist. When Prince opened for the Rolling Stones he was booed off the stage by ignorant racist fans who thought since he was black he must be playing disco. I challenge anyone to claim Keith Richards is a better rock guitarist than Prince.

If he wants to hear Sevendust on the radio he just needs to move to Tulsa, they’re one of the can’t-escape-'em bands on rock radio here.

When he says “we” want a return of rock’n’roll, who is “we”? It sure as hell isn’t me.

By the way, I’m a white guy who owns every Metallica album up to and including And Justice For All… I know what I’m talking about when I say I find rock tired, nothing since the end of grunge that has had heavy guitars has sounded “new” to me.

14

Did anyone besides me flash to The Who’s track “The Music Must Change”, from the
* Who Are You* album of the Who?

15

:o Uhmm, as distinguished from The Who’s track of the same name from the Who Are You album of Pink Floyd, of course :o

16

I’ll make a side note here. Living in a ghetto doesn’t mean that you have to shit on everyone else who happens to live there with you, that being poor automatically gives you the right to act like a thug and steal whatever you want or need, or to abuse a welfare system and social aide programs. Living in a tenement house does not give you the right to be a pain in the ass to your neighbors, nor to let your kids run wild and free, or to be as unsociable as possible. Having to live in a run down neighborhood does not give you the right to use anyone who happens to cross your path or to teach your kids that it is OK to steal, plunder, join gangs, own guns or prey on others around you.

People in ghettos are the biggest factor in the problem with ghettos. They make their own lives more miserable than the conditions warrant.

Music celebrating this destructive form of lifestyle does nothing to improve it but encourages others to imitate and prey on it and to accept it without question. None of the rap songs offer solutions, just complaints and portraying a deviational lifestyle as something that is good and proper.

If these conditions fit any particular race then perhaps it is time for that race to clean up its act instead of waiting for others to do it for them. Recovery starts from within.

17

Livin’ in da burbz don’t mean ya hasta shit on everyone livin’ in da’ PJs.

I hate giving lists to “hatas” who claim “None of the rap songs offer solutions”, but in this case I would humbly suggest that Public Enemy, The Roots, hell even the good-time boys in Jurassic Five offer positive messages.

As opposed to the positive messages of such acts as Drowning Pool, Puddle of Mud (I love the way you smack my ass, indeed), And whatever lame ass band does that “down with the sickness” song.

18

First, I think this belongs in the Pit, and imagine it’ll be heading there directly.

Second, I think even sven was on the right track. The people singing (rapping) about “the streets” are only singing what they know. If they come from the ghetto, how in the hell are they going to sing about the happy surburban life? If they come from the ghetto, how in the hell are they going to define who they are unless they create a culture of their own (black kids or white). And since race was brought up, yeah, most of this “street” music/culture you don’t like did start off as a black thing. Thinking otherwise is just being naive. I will agree that suburban kids in the malls wearing their pants half-way down their asses look silly, but you know what? They do it to get a rise out of the older generation, much like kids have been doing for the better part of the last century up until now. And if they like how it looks and how it makes them feel about themselves, so what?

You don’t like the music? Don’t blame the singers (rappers). Blame the shitty-assed environment many of them come from.

People from rural environments tend to gravitate toward country music and culture (this is a generalization, I know, but a fairly accurate one IMO.) The same can be said for people living in urban settings gravitating toward “street music.”

I like some rap, doesn’t mean I’m living the thug life, though. I like some country, doesn’t mean I wear a cowboy hat and live in the country. My point here is that music can span cultures (I’m white suburban male), and just because you aren’t living out what’s being sung (rapped) doesn’t mean you can’t like (or at least accept that there’s a niche filled by) a certain type of music and culture.

Farm kids typically don’t sing about the 'hood, and urban kids don’t typically sing (rap) about cowboy boots and tractor trailers.

Deal with it.

I do agree that today’s music does need to be revitalized somehow. There is a lot of crap on the radio right now – in rock, Top 40, country and urban – but until someone does something about it, I’m content listening to the things I like and ignoring the rest.
stv

19

I know it isn’t up to us, but I would like to place a vote against moving to the pit. I know that any racially charged discussion is dangerous ground, but we’re all grownups. I’ve tried to avoid namecalling, and so has omnivore- I don’t consider being called a race-baiter namecalling, and it seems omnivore hadn’t realised how his thread would sound to some of us.
Discussion in MPSIMS is more likely to make progress than name-calling in the pit.

20

Point well taken, grendel. However the OP was a rant, and it seems most posts here have either been “me too” posts, mini-rants, or arguing one point or another.

Maybe GD? Ah, who cares…it ain’t my call anyway.
Carry on… :slight_smile:

stv