Sick and tired of this Cultural Period

[lupin]

I am. I dont know about you guys but I have just about had it with this Rap/Hip Hop Underground Emo culture that is everywhere. I mean it seems like I cant turn on a channel and watch a program I like without getting blasted with either a commercial or a bumper for another show on the network that assumes I am a 17-24 year old male who either thinks of himself as a gangsta or an emo kid. I mean its gotten to the point where the first time I saw thebroken (was about 3 or 4 months ago) I almost wrote off Revision 3 entirely. But of course thebroken is a parody of the very thing I hate just I am so on edge about things that seem to be about one thing try to incorporate a new target demo (think G4).

And no, Im not going on a "Culture War" here (O' Reily you ornery ass mother ****er your part of every problem and no solution) because there are a lot of things that seem to be going great. Open Source awareness and support is on the rise, Web 2.0 and user submitted content to it is probably wont this generation will be remembered for. But I can never help but feel that right around the corner something else will become tainted with this slant on how the youth of today are.

I know I cant be alone here so let me know what you think.

And no, this isnt another negative post by Lupin, just me wanting to have an intelligent conversation.

Also say something smart or insightful and you get 10 points...

[klitzy]

There goes Lupin with his negativity again...

[lupin]

You lose 5 points

[klitzy]

Oh no! Am I at -5 now?

[tokenuser]

I blame MTV. The push both lifestyle, the "cool" kids pick up on it, the advertisers pick up that the cool kids have picked up on it, the tv networks pickup that the advertisers have picked up on it and create more shows to attract the advertisers who haven't quite got it yet, but would like to associate themselves with people that have.

So, suddenly you have "teen angst dramas" set in the burbs (emo), or the gritty inner city (gansta/rap/hip hop), same storylines - different words and soundtracks.

Now you have people that aren't watching MTV getting their heads messed with as well, but the show become popular. Hot topic, AE, A&F, Urban Outfitters, (hell even GAP/Old Navy, Target, KMart, Walmert) etc and a slew of similar stores start selling the merchandise. The soundtracks from the shows are cross promoted, and climb the billboard charts, the videos from the mucis gets played on MTV's TRL, and a much younger audience is suddenly exposed to a corrupted version of what was initially a fairly legit underground subculture.

Then the cycle repeats itself.

[lupin]

I agree. What your basically trying to say is that MTV and similar hot spots for whats hot (god I never want to say/type that again) know exactly when to harvest the fruit of the underground culture and propel it into pop culture? Then it gets bigger and bigger until everyone and their mom (literally no cliche) gets in on it implodes. But then of course the next big underground movement is ready for pickin'. That the jist of it?

So what do you think the next be thing will be? Im putting my vote in for techno/dance.

[jjallday]

People have been saying techno is the next big thing for as long as I can remember, and I'm old. I say, put all your stock into death metal.

[tokenuser]

So what do you think the next be thing will be? Im putting my vote in for techno/dance.Techno/dance? Not so much ... but in the US my money is that it will be either a Latin fusion (expect a big flood of cuban music/influence once Castro dies next week) or Europop/Britpop. The whole emo and rap/hiphop thing seems to be driven by appealing to a male audience, but I think the next big thing will come from the female side of things - especially the Latin stuff, which might drag some of the rap/hiphop followers along with it, while the emo andrones (ever noticed that emos are sexless?) will be attracted to the Europop/Britpop dance/music.

[klitzy]

So what do you think the next be thing will be? Im putting my vote in for techno/dance.

Of course you do...

http://www.myspace.com/lupinmusic

[lupin]

Hehe touche :D And look someone linked to something of mine besides me! Im so happy. But you know Death Metal may be the next big thing. With bands like Ramstein becoming more popular and even a little mainstream attention in the form of [adult swim]'s Metalocalopyse it very well could be Metal the next wave.

[xibalba]

As long as the rich old men that run things think its cool and what we want, they will keep shoving it down our throats.

Death metal the next big thing I wish. With all these screamo bands that claim their death metal its going to give it a bad name. It will make people who have never heard it think thats what death metal is.

[ryudo]

Another hatred topic rant from Lupin I see.


That said I agree with Tokenuser

[njshadow]

Is it just me or does it seem like music and television went down the tubes in the last 5 years. It's true, there used to actually be good rap but now it's lame lame lame. This " Gangsta' " music is really starting to get annoying. Man, the 90's seemed so much more calm. I'm not trying to be negative, but yeah, things are a little crazy nowadays.

[valleyvampiress]

I don't really care what the latest popular music is. I listen to what I want, when I want. And although we are pretty much inundated with these things in all types of media forms, I don't really feel overwhelmed by it. That might have to do with the fact that I don't listen to FM radio, I watch most shows on DVR (and thus skip the commercials), and the media I do choose to watch/hear/interact with is just that, what I choose.

I can have a smatter of different tastes in music at one point in time. For example, at this moment I can easily enjoy some Mary J. Blige, some Rod Stewart, some PJ Harvey, and some Liza Minnelli. And I'm sure I'm not the only one with such varying taste.

[noonebutme]

There goes Lupin with his negativity again...
Just me or have i never seen a positive post by Lupin? they all seem to be mildly flame-material in the way they're written (No offense if they're not supposed to be that way but its just how they seem to me.)

[alexsk8ca]

You know when most people heard about Rammstein though? Through Bam Margera, who has been made famous by MTV. Most likely most of the things you like and praise, you like in praise because they have been made popular by the culture you hate. That's why you have to start liking things for what they are. I have liked a lot of bands that have became famous and "sold out" or whatever, but I am not going to stop liking them because they are popular. There are so many people that what to be the person to like the stuff that's not popular, that they make it popular. If that all makes any sense to anyone.

[starscream80]

MTV shows the decline of the younger generation. Honestly, everything that channel shows is garbage.

[lupin]

But I dont like Rammstein... I mean its ok but I dont like metal... I like punk/ska. Im not one of those "dont like it because its not popular" ppl I like what I like because I like it :D And all my post are negative? No they are not, just the ones that are are more interesting.

[striker1211]

I blame the welfare program for the urban problems. I work as a cashier and all day i see ghetto people acting hard and rich and they give me their food stamp card. People do NOT appreciate the help they are given and instead try to look rich and gangster. As for the emo kids that lack of parental influence and too much myspace :)

Thats probably not that intelligent of a post, but do i still get a point? :P

[darknessgp]

Hehe touche :D And look someone linked to something of mine besides me! Im so happy. But you know Death Metal may be the next big thing. With bands like Ramstein becoming more popular and even a little mainstream attention in the form of [adult swim]'s Metalocalopyse it very well could be Metal the next wave.

**** adult swim... seriously, they show butchered anime and then think the fan service anime is good, i.e. the boobs and crotch animes (not hentai though) That's what really pisses me off, cause then you have little junior kids thinking they know stuff about anime and really all they have seen was a shitting dub of some anime that was shit to begin with...

Seriously, on a similar topic though, I really think networks like MTV, G4, Nickelodeon (owned by MTV), Cartoon Network(mainly with Adult Swim), etc are causing problems. Everyone I know (majority are college aged and up) don't watch any of that shit. But we have junior high and high school kids watching it thinking that this is what college or "grown ups" are like.

[alexsk8ca]

But you can't blame the networks, you would have to blame the people that watch them. It's called supply and demand. With out the demand for crappy TV, there would be no crappy TV.

[lupin]

I love some of cartoon networks programming. Billy and Mandy and Gym Partner are great because they have a lot of adult jokes. For example the whole thing about Jake (the monkeys) sexuality. Yeah, he is gay and thats fun on a kids TV show. And Ed Edd and Eddy makes a lot of odd ball references.

And yeah [adult swim] does censor a lot of stuff but they try real hard to keep it as close to how it was dubbed. Then again dubs well dubs are almost always bad. But they ran shows like FLCL Paranoia Agent and Trinity Blood. I consider all those shows to be not so mainstream.

But I dont watch MTV or Nick or G4 really that much. I do watch Nicktoon Network for shit like Rocko and Angry Beavers. But I think cartoons are better then most "adult humour shows" as if they have more mature humour its hidden and doesnt beat you over the head with it. But yeah [adult swim] has gone down hill a lot. Its getting too big for its britches.

[_sorrow_]

One stance i have on present day culture is that its turning into what i call an "iPod culture" (and don't hate me for using iPod in particular, there is a reason behind it!)

I don't see it too much in my every day life, but last year i saw it all the time, and while visiting my sister in Washington D.C. i got a really good taste of it too--and i can only imagine that its increasing every day, even if i'm not seeing it first-hand. Everyone is in their own little world once they are out of their own personal social sphere. It seems that when you get on public transportation, its more likely than not that a good portion, if not majority, of the people you are riding with, are jacked into some device; living out their own little musical or video based world; ignoring any and all around them.

And the reason for calling it an iPod culture is that a majority of people are going with the simplest products that they can use, and learning little to nothing about the technology that they are using. Not that its entirely to relevant that someone know what AAC format, or what a DRM is, etc, but none the less, as my friend once told me: People use iPods for the same reason that people use M$ Windows: they don't know that there are other alternatives out there, many of which may be better than what they are using.

So with this new iPod culture we have going on, people are less and less likely to meet people in traditional means, and more likely to resort to something like match.com or whatever. People are met through websites (like this one), which is all fine and dandy, but when i walk out of my house tomorrow, i'm not going to be meeting any of you folks for lunch -- i'll probably even be eating lunch alone, because i don't know many people who live here--and everyone else will be listening to their iPods.

/rant

Uhhh... i have a feeling thats not going to sound anything like i planned or hoped, but screw it, i'm posting. Flamers, bring it on! :D

[lupin]

Ill give that 5 points :P

But, I agree. I tell people all the time that I think (I dont want this labeled as a conspiracy theory) that those in charge have gotten what they want. We seem to be the most connected right now then we have been in any other time with the internet and Cell Phones so cheap that everyone can get one, but, at the same time we are not. We just think we are. As a culture and people we are the most subdued and indifferent that right now then have been in the past 40 years. I honestly believe that our government right now could do whatever they want with little to no civil unrest. All though you would see the internet come to life with complaints and threats to riot on the streets but it would never happen. The internet has pit together people on different coast or from unknown origins so they feel only and out of place in their own area. But what these people dont know is that the internet is so large and just because people from your area arent in the places you hang out doesnt mean they arent in another corner of the net talking about the exact same thing.

Yup I do believe they have us exactly where they want us.

[daunt02]

I feel that hip hop and emo music is easier to sell and reproduce than other forms of music. Which is essentially the main focus of music these days. Massive reproduction and significant gains. Since hip hop is so easy to imitate, and since there are thousands of young hopefuls willing to be the next guinea pig superstars, the major music producers swoop in and grapple as much of the market as possible. Then, once music producers and record companies notice a slight rise in say, electronica among 17-20 somethings, they'll pluck another pig to imitate the sounds that that underground is producing.

Like sorrow mentioned, our culture is becoming an ipod culture. Music does not have the social significance it use to have. A new wave of music would shape the viewpoint of a whole nation. Now, the worth of music is a tick on your itunes library. Which leads to "Big Stars" meaning nothing more to the average kid as an extra lip piercing.

Now Lupin, I wouldn't discredit the Internet's possibility to make civil unrest manifest. Infact, it has the potential to connect people around the world for protests much larger and much more connected than people say, in the 60s could produce. However I have to agree with you on people much more complicit these days, which makes the prospect of people mobilizing into action less likely. People have jobs, husbands, wives, children, ipods, clothes, health care, social security, and a plethora of other things to worry about that people say 50 years ago didn't have the luxury to occupy their minds with. That's the reason why, I feel, people in general a lot less politically aware than in the pass. But that's just me.