The Sad State of Music
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Music

Wow. That's all I can say...and I don't mean that in a good way.

They say that the C in rap is silent. My addendum is that it is unfortunate that the rest of it isn't.

Rap music started out as a new form of artistic expression. RunDMC with their "You Be Illin," for instance, was funny. Especially the guy who walked in to a KFC, put down a quarter, then ordered a Big Mac with a small fries. It had a beat, it had rhythm, and it was often good, clean music.

Fast forward two decades. Now you have every Tom, pric- er, Dick and Harry putting out obnoxious hip-hop rap music. Don Imus looks like a saint by comparison to this stuff they pass off as music. 50 cent's "Candy Shop", a tune called "Shake Your Money Maker", etc. All of them involve drugs, sex, crime, adult language and often misogyny and racist words (don't tell me the N-word is any different used by a black than a non-black...you're just kidding yourself).

Hey, I can do that, too. (starts banging hand on table nearby and doing a "rap")

Rap, guns, drugs, language

foul language, dirty words

aabbaabbabbbbabbubbubahmy words are so stupid

I'm gonna play them all night long

Gonna play them all night long

Gonna play them all night long

Gonna (square wave synthesizer in the background)

Pkkpkkpkkkp WORD!! YEAH!!! DIRTY DANCE TIL YOU CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE YOU (BAD WORD)

Hey, I have enough to cut an album.

Unfortunately, it's not just rap, either. All kinds of music today are nothing but synthesizers replacing real instruments entirely, guitars playing nothing but power chords (two distinctive notes do not make a chord), loud thumping bass. I think I need to invest in Beltone (hearing aid manufacturers), because today's youth will need their services early on.

What happened to the days of hard rock and metal, where you used actual chords, ones that have more than two distinct notes in them? Groups like Soundgarden and Metallica? Medium rock groups like Live? Soft rock groups like Seals and Crofts or Chicago?

That's not to say there aren't good groups out there, but they're a minority these days. Local groups tend to emphasize actual music, actual instruments. Such groups as Red Clay Ramblers and Holy Ghost Tent Revival from NC, for instance, actually SING for a change.