December 28, 2003

The time has come for a hero to arise.

Ok... I was reading the NY Daily News Sunday entertainment section and it occured to me that I'm not the only one who feels the world is a musical sesspool of mediocre crap.

I read this article (see the article via the extended entry below) and realized that what we're forced to deal with today makes the 80's look like the great mecca of musical history.

Where are the icons? Where are the "new avante garde " sounds that made the ear tingle with excitement and the skin grow goose bumps simply because of a "phenomenon". The 80's gave us idols, icon, phenomenons and cult favourites. There was the Michael Jackson frenzy,Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran,Tina Turner, Boy George and the Culture Club,Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, New Order,Blondie,Madonna,The Talking Heads, Prince, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, Run DMC with Aerosmith creating Rap-Rock, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, New Edition, Morris Day and the Time... I could go on....
It was a time of acts that excited... that inspired, that people emulated religiously through style or dress or lip-sync.

Now what do we have? Boy Bands, Cookie Cutter Bands and tired Diva's that sing songs with no meaning. Rappers you barely understand that have NOTHING to say. *sigh* It makes you shake your head and wonder what has happened? No style unless you're KISS and that's recycled 70's style.
No creativity...

The world is hurting. it needs a hero. Someone to save us from hum-drum music. Someone who has something more to bring to the table... I humbly volunteer for the job.
Oh HELL! SCREW THAT! I'm TAKING the job... no one ELSE has a clue. Rally' round me boy's and girls! It's time to go to war! War with bad musicians! War with bad lyricists and big business record companies that don't mind releasing shit on a plate for us to eat and telling us it's Porterhouse! War against the brainwashing of our generations! War against the dismal visuals we are forced to endure in the way of live acts and videos. Allow me to be your General and Prophet and I will deliver us UP from this quagmire of musical muck!
The world will quake before us! THIS I SWEAR!!!

Now continue to the extended entry and read the article from today's paper.

Waiting for the revolution
By Jim Farber

Downloading and downsizing. Mergers and layoffs.
Those unsettling words describe the principal actions and concerns of the music industry these days. In just the last year, we've seen five major controlling corporations contract to four - or 3 1/2 , considering the weak pull of EMI.

Internet theft is blamed. But whatever the reason, sales keep heading south.
What has been ruinous for the big companies, however, may be the best possible news for the music itself.

Bracingly new sounds and ideas thrive in the face of economic disaster. And if the business plan for how music is made and received needs to be rethought - as even the most cautious gatekeepers of the industry believe - that means 2004 could witness the biggest sonic revolution in pop since the breakthrough of grunge and the mass embrace of hip hop, in the early '90s.
Okay, that may be overly optimistic.
Maybe it won't happen until 2005. Or 2006. But it has to happen. And the stars are aligned to bring it about sooner rather than later.

Consider this: We live in the most musically conservative pop era since the early '60s, a time when the milky likes of Pat Boone pushed out the wild types like Jerry Lee Lewis.

Some of the biggest debuts of last year came from "American Idol" nerds Clay, Ruben and Kelly. All of them appeal to a crowd that doesn't normally buy records, an audience that's unlikely to keep ruling things once the industry finds a way to lure back those underserved millions who passionately want to lead music's next revolution.

At the same time, we have a resurgence of popularity in music that appeals to older folks, like the smash cover records from artists like Rod Stewart and Michael McDonald.

That demographic also excludes the kind of forward-thinking young people who, for more than 40 years, have been the strongest creative spur to popular music. Eventually, the turgid conservatism of the charts will create a revolutionary movement.

Already, we're seeing some of music's most progressive stars expressing a new, and potentially, fruitful fidgetiness in their work - hinting at what may satisfy the coming need.

Hip-hop pioneers Q-Tip, Andre 3000 of OutKast, and Cee-lo have gotten bored with rap's normal tropes. So they've taken hammers to the genre's old mold. Andre's efforts have gotten enough notice lately to earn nominations in all the top Grammy categories. If OutKast takes them in February, it would be a bellwether moment in the growth of this entire musical form.

Likewise, both Q-Tip and Cee-lo have new albums coming early next year, which they hope will telegraph hip hop's future.

RAP & REGGAE ROMANCE

At the same time, hip hop has been drawing fresh inspiration from the world outside the U.S. The past year, rap benefited by absorbing sounds from the Indian subcontinent, resulting in hits for Missy Elliott, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Timbaland.

Next up could be a broader breakthrough of the music known as "reggaeton" - a Puerto Rican melding of Jamaican dance hall and rap. Its stars - including Tego Calderon - drew enough fans this fall to fill Madison Square Garden.

Simultaneously, the U.K. has spawned a promising pioneer of what we might call post-hip-hop. Dizzee Rascal has already taken Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize for his efforts to redefine rap through his own British experience. His American debut arrives in late January.

A precursor to Rascal - Mike Skinner, otherwise known as the Streets - will release his second U.S. album in April, following up a debut, "Original Pirate Material," that wowed cutting-edge hip-hop and rock fans in 2002.

Rock also has real impetus to change. Some of its biggest bands, including Korn and Limp Bizkit, aren't selling like they used to. And other than the creatively tired Linkin Park and Evanescence, no rock band has broken through with major sales numbers in the last year.

The world isn't tired of guitars. It's just that someone - or some scene of players - is going to have to come up with as fresh an approach to the instrument as the Seattle crew did in '92.

Ironically, they could take a page from the recent strategy of their seeming opposites - the teen stars. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake initially made music as narrow and tepid as Clay and Kelly do now, but they learned that they must change or die. Timberlake's musical overhaul has been nothing short of a revelation, transforming him from a hack to a creative hellion with a single solo album.

In February, his fellow 'N Sync cutie JC Chasez will put out his first solo work, which likewise will attempt to shake off the old group's cornball sound and nudge teen pop ahead.

LATIN LESSONS

An equally exciting change would come if U.S. pop took some cues from the great rock coming out of Latin America. Both Mexico and Colombia have been incubating thrilling bands for the last few years. Our closest southern neighbor has given us Kinky, Control Machete and Cafe Tacuba, while Colombia boasts Aterciopelados and Juanes. All these artists have much to teach American rock about how to reinvigorate guitar-based music. One of the most promising of these acts, Aterciopelados, will return with a new album sometime next year.

Given the range of new sounds and styles out there ready to be combined with Anglo rock, you have to wonder what we're all waiting for.

Essentially, we're waiting for the next Kurt Cobain - a star with the mythic qualities (and personal troubles) to fire the imagination of a generation. But in this particular stretch of history - the most restrictive and repetitive period of pop for the last 40 years - there's something important we should consider.

The last time we had such drought - the early '60s - the void created a need that was fulfilled by no less transforming a force than the Beatles.

Can it happen again?

ONE TO WATCH IN 2004: KANYE WEST

There's no more in-demand R&B/hip-hop producer these days than Kanye West. Over the last few years, West has fashioned scorching soul-infused tracks for Nelly, Alicia Keys, Cam'Ron, Mos Def, Scarface, Talib Kweli, the Cash Money crew and, most prominently, Jay-Z.

He's responsible for one of Jay's biggest hits, "Izzo," along with key cuts on his album "The Blueprint."

On Feb. 10, Chicago-born West will release his first solo album, "College Dropout." On it, he collaborates with Ludacris, Freeway, Mos Def and, of course, Jay.

This will be the first time the world will hear West doing his own rapping. Don't expect it to be the last.

Originally published on December 28, 2003

Posted by at December 28, 2003 04:57 PM