we have digital cable because that`s the only way i can get speed channel which is where i get my Formula One fix. season starts in two days. digital cable has also afforded me the music video channels, you remember those, what MTV and VH1 used to be when they launched. to ensure they can still be called “Music Television” and Video Hits One” they have a plethora of channels that show only music videos.
i`ve realised that i`m getting older because of the eight or ten possible music video channels i watch only one with great regularity; VH1 Classic; home of blocks of videos from the 70s and 80s; and i am content. lately i`ve been drifting to VH1 Soul because they`ve been featuring blocks of music and when i do get sucked in it tends to be artists i like; on sunday there was a one hour block of Bob Marley videos.
i really started writing reflecting on rap and hip hop. i`m not a fan of most of the current crop of hip hop, primarily because it all sounds the same. i`m not saying that rap was always a fount of originality but there was a moment when everything was new and dare i say it; fresh.
the misogyny and violence don`t bother me as much as it should; i own the first two Ice Cube albums and at the time the sound was new and interesting but there comes a point where it gets old and you find yourself wondering what you enjoyed. then there is the concept that the only purpose for recording a lot of this music is to increase profit margins. i think fundamentally that`s what bothers me; the anger, sexuality and violence perpetrated on records don`t come for some place genuine; it`s all about making a profit. and it`s not just hip hop, the music industry is all about profitability; if they can`t make money off you with the trite pop, they can make money by appealing to your baser instincts; anger, lust, you get the idea; they believe there is a niche for you.
i long for the days of the pure storytelling and fun that were the roots of rap and hip hop. or maybe those days never existed and it was just the innocence of youth.
