When will rap music be less mainstream?


First time I heard MC Hammer’s song many years ago, I like the rhythm and thought it is quite unique. After that, all kinds of rap music pop up. I never thought rap music would be mainstream for such a long time in US. If you look at the music award ceremonies, you will find it being flooded with rap music. Sometimes I am not even sure rap can be considered as song because you don’t sing but speak. Now you start to hear rap music in some other languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean that don’t sound good in rap format. It would be interesting to hear rap music in Italian.

Time will tell if a song is good or not. A song is good if somebody want to play it for their loved ones on the radio 20 years later. I can’t imagine someone will play a rap for their beloved one 20 years later. Just curious if any A’gon member keep any rap collection?

Besides rap, I also have a feeling that the music industry in general is getting cheesy now. American Idol show gets huge attention while lots of singers perform at the bar or hotel can easily sing better than the idols. The show also asked Barbara Streisand if she watched the show and who was her favorite idol. What do you expect her to answer? People said Justin Timberlake is very talented singer/songwriter. I know him because I saw lots of headshot of him on commercials and magazines, but can you name any popular/well known song from him?
yxlei
The "Lame Duck" thread is great fun.

Geto Boys really put Houston on the map, back in the day. I've got an odd Bushwick Bill/Geto Boys encounter story from the '91 at a "Grunge" concert, or all places..
When will rap become less mainstream?...not sure but I'm seriously considering getting really religious/faithful and start praying a whole bunch. I honestly feel it is the first genre or style of music that has caused irreversable damage to many young listeners that just happen to grow-up being exposed to and listening to it. I'm a teacher and have watched the effect it has on behavior and I'll tell you first hand...it's not pleasant. I am not racial nor biased...just calling what I have witnessed. I undestand fully that the younger generation have come by this naturally as it's what they are growing up on music wise and I feel it's not only a shame but sad. Sad because the artist are looked upon as heroes or someone to be admired when there is so much negativity associated with most of the material. Negativity that influences lawlessness and what is decency. Glad I grew up in the 70's.
Before you get religious and start praying remember, Choral music is way more likely to lead to shame and irreversible damage - just ask a choirboy.

If you are under twelve just watch where you are kneeling when you start praying a whole bunch. That genre and environment is rampant with all the negative terms you just mentioned - lawlessness, lack of decency, shame, irreversible damage - who is their hero?
It all has little to do with the material and everything to do with the environment they grow up in. Take the music away and the gangs will go away? This is like saying watching the Soprano's is is going to cause a crime wave.

I would feel much safer sending my son to a hip-hop concert than to choir practice - and I mean that.
I hear you. Not to say that taking the music away will take the gangs away. Being a sociology major I know better than that. However, one must remember that music is cultural thus a part of ones environment. They do go hand in hand. Nonetheless, my statements are based on the attitude which one acquires when exposed to certain rap music. Btw...I'm not going to church...that was total sarcasm on my part as that is what many people do after all other attemps at something fail. Though I don't 'practice' religion...I think your views on sending your son to church are a bit paranoid but you parent the way you feel is safe for your children. There are so many threats in society today and some more probable than others. Exposure to negative gangster rap or is that gangsta' rap...is far more probable than your son or mine for that matter being violated by a church member.
The person who started this thread has initiated 21 of them and has only responded a total of 7 times.
Accept the bare fact that rap is just another ORIGINAL ART FORM contributed to america by African Americans. The myriad of forms concieved is staggering, close your ears to it out of ignorance, or because you'd rather stay where you're at.
Jazz, rock and roll, rap. They all share a common thread.
There's a big world out there. Don't pigeonhole a form that you haven't even explored. It makes you sound ignorant.
For the record, my music collection contains everthing but mainstream country, pop, and rap.
That leaves a LOT of room for those forms of music, I just don't like the production of the top forty crap.
The fact that the majority likes the stuff doesn't make them stupid, or me smart. In the end your simple opinion doesn't negate the fact that hip-hop and rap are still here, popular as Elvis, and old squares can't get with it.
Don't get me started on that kanye west character!!!
HXT1
Did I just speak without moving my lips......... ooops, sorry it was you.
I agree with everything you noted. An open-mind makes for a healthy life and mind.
Welcome to the club, small as it is on here, and as Bongofury noted "outnumbered but never outgunned."
Phat Tommy: where did all the haters go? I guess this posting is a w"rap". He he. :)
Bongofury

I guess they are all off the computer and checking out all the great music we turned them onto. As for me, I am just chilling at home listening to loads of great music from the 70s mixed up with a healthy dose of Mahler and Beethoven. You should swing by - there is wine and cheese......it's absolutely craaaaaaazy!

I have been off sticking my clueless nose in on technical gear threads once in a while - not nearly as fun as this one has been.

Must dash, my favorite Donny Osmond CD has just come on.
Two words: Aesop Rock.

There is already non-mainstream rap, you just need to know where to find it.
TT: nachos and Two Buck Chuck and the exciting sounds of Seals and Croft, Bread, Al Stewart and the Osmonds. What really could be better? Finish it up with "Aretha Franklin and some fine Columbian" like Steely Dan.

Mjmch: thx. I like underground stuff, like the many side projects of Dan the Automator.
I was even watching "Austin City Limits", which generally features at least simitalented artists, and they had a bunch of hip hoppers with gold chains and teeth jumping around stage going "wo-wo-wo yo-yo-yo" on that, so it just shows how far "we" have fallen, and I guess it is here to stay.
I was driving yesterday listening to K-DAY LA and they had a little 1989 to 1991 thing going.

This is still a great jam - Hip Hop Hooray

And this one changed the game - Me Myself and I
Bongo

Forget the Bay Area - I am off for a few months to the land of big bums and Bossa Nova....so if you should ever find yourself down that way just pop me an email.
Hey, there is a whole new sound breaking loose from the favela's down there - Baile Funk. It is electronic music and has been around for a while, with its roots in Miami Bass and it takes a bit of getting used to - real raw and gritty sound with great hard core parties with huge walls of speakers and all those skinny gorgeous mulatos getting real nasty to it and a vibe similar to the early rave warehouse party days. You put your life in your hands going in there unless you are well connected. DJ Diplo is into that sound now and has even brought some of the acts to the states. On his first adventure into one of the parties in Rio he was greeted at the door by a bunch of 15 years olds, big blunts hanging out of their mouths, AK 47s slung over their shoulders and strapped up with hand grenades. One kid had a hottie bent over on the dancefloor and was doing lines of the devils dandruff off her ass!
Anyway, it is sweeping Brasil like crazy now and it is becoming relatively mainstream. It is at the point where a DJ in a regular cub just needs to drop a funk track and the roof comes off the place. I plan on hitting up a real favela party on this trip. My guess is it is going to be the next big thing here within a few years.
6550c,
Austin City limtis recently has been hosting a lot of great acts (not last weekend however, some country singer) But a couple weeks back I caught KNaan and Mos Def.

KNaan blew me away...
TT: my daughter has been into him for the last year. Diplo = talented guy. When you get your crate full of tunes, let me know. I can book you into So Cal clubs. BongoBaileFury.
Tpreaves, I rarely allow other people to speak for me, but you said it all, there is nothing I can add.
I stopped listening to "main stream" music once I discovered Dave Dixon on WDET (Detroit) many years ago. He turned me on to such a diversity of good music - I am forever grateful. I so enjoyed his eclecticism and sharp wit - I miss him to this day. Don't follow the lemmings! Seek out what you like. Main stream be damned!
This thread is in desperate need of sociology professors and psychiatrists. This thread is completely out of the audiophile zone.