7.11.2010

lament for lyrics

this is a rant. i'm mad.

whatever happened to good ol' R&B?  i remember when a boy would sing songs about his endless love for you, how desperately he wanted to "get to know" you, all while dressed in his best gloves or his favorite hat or his best white shirt (noticing a theme, heh). now, all that seems to be getting airplay is how much he don't need you, how he's so happy you don't need him, how he's gonna break your back, how he's gonna do you in the club (or at his house on your birthday...yeah that's what i want for my birthday...the saaaaaaame lame ass performance as always, jeremih), how you ought to be droppin' it like it's hot...awesome.

i know chivalry is dying (trust me, it's NOT dead) and men are dogs and on and on and on, but is romance being skewered as well? what do teen girls have to look forward to--let alone up to--now?


drake
this dude....
the bieber
pre-pubescent boys

r. kelly
men who will lovingly urinate on you



trey songz
and "thugZ who invented sex"....did you, indeed? i'll bet historians are baffled by how well you've aged.

seems like getting knocked up by a rapper is all that single young women have to fantasize about. no more sweet crooning--you know you loved tevin campbell as much as the next tween girl--or being dubbed the beauty in that special man's life.  no romance. nada. zip.

but it's not just the men.  we also have:
ciara
this one riding the beat. no really, the beat. pinky swear.

beyonce
the god fearing southern belle

nicki minaj
no. words. but i hear she's looking for 'real love'.

by no means were dru hill and LSG giving us wonderful messages of positivity and chastity but at least there was some inkling of....emotion there.  i was never a hardcore r&b fan but having recently listened to the radio (my dad loaned me his bose...effing amazing machine!), i realize that i'm not missing much, and i'd much rather take my billie holiday and kings of leon over this smut. it used to be that you could change the station and catch a soft word or two, but things have changed so drastically. i'm so upset by the direction that our music has taken. not 'our' as people of color, but rather our generation. every other word has got 4 letters (the more creative ones have hyphens...) and i find myself genuinely concerned for the kids coming up now. 

even the neo-soul movement has been phased out. i find myself retreating into jazz, into alternative (wtf does this actually mean, someone please explain), into hard rock, trance, electronica, anything but this godforsaken hip hop that has destroyed the popular perception of women as things to be toyed with and flung aside, or worse yet, to be used as receptacles for champagne. i want my old school motown back. i want men who begged and worked for women's attention. 

charm a woman, dammit. romance me, don't disparage me. and women ought not to be encouraging it, sitting ass up licking lollipops or disparaging men as replaceable (this means you bey). yes, we can give as good as we get, but can we maybe go a few steps back to anita baker's sweet love or faith's eagerness to get home

it seems that we no longer need to be talented. we just need to be marketable. sex has always sold. now it's coming in bucketloads and decent, truly talented artists are being passed over for the next best, dirtiest thing. i can't even listen to the radio anymore without feeling like i'd need to cover my ears or gasp at the things coming out of so-called artists' mouths.  i am grateful for those artists who are able to surmount this awful thing called marketability.  ladies like amel larrieux or chrisette michele.  alicia keys used to be on that list, but...nah. 

r and b used to be the only place of respite when rap got too crass and offensive or just plain stupid.  catchy as it may be, i really wish that mainstream would take the youth into consideration and try to inject some sort of moral fortitude into their rhymes (ha!) or at least make it appropriate for folks of all ages. tits and ass seem to be the foundation upon which the industry is now built. 

i have sought alternatives and people look at me strangely when they get into my car and i'm playing bon iver or listening to daft punk or blasting nina simone. i'm not a hipster. i just want more for myself, for my brain, and for my eardrums. unless i'm the only one bitching about this and everyone's listening to npr.

end of line.

check it out:






bodysuit: h&m (and a bitch to pee in...)
shorts: dkny. velvet in the summer? why, yes. i AM slow.
ruffled flats: audrey brooke

even more random:
found this quote and thought it too hilarious not to share:
"Marrying that hitler youth, demon spawn is a sure sign that Heidi Montag is not competant enough to dress herself in the morning let alone pick out her own jumbo sized new breasts."
via atila

Labels: , ,

7 Comments:

Blogger Julia said...

Amen. Yeah. I spent a whole summer listening to Trey Songz before I knew he spelled his "last name" with a z. And then I felt kind of betrayed, because that z seems to suggest things (linguistically, I mean) that I'm not comfortable with. Oh what a world.

12/7/10 00:22  
Blogger InnyVinny said...

*hand clap*

Music today sucks...not that 90's music was stellar, but at least there was variety...and emotion. I hate the radio. I really do.

12/7/10 01:07  
Blogger A Stylized Hysteria said...

I agree so very, very much. I was never a big r&b fan, but I used to enjoy catching new songs on the radio when I was in high school. Now? I refuse to bother with r&b. I haven't listened to any of it in years. It's just crap now. The misogyny and the posturing isn't cutting edge or hardcore or interesting anymore. It's boring and brainless. I really hope the youth start to demand more.

12/7/10 10:03  
Blogger Melody said...

Girl...

Girl!!!
AMEN!

I'm so SICK of this shit! Sick of it. Fucking Justin Bieber, WHO THE FUCK IS HE?! I honestly didn't know who the kid was until this afternoon. My friend was actually shocked at my not knowing who Justin fucking Beiber was. Who gives a shit. Fucking, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, BEYONCE... That woman HAS to be the biggest living LIE, woo don't even get me STARTED on her triflin self. We would need a whole lotta time for me to properly dissect what is wrong with this woman.

"I like a long haired thick red bone, open up her legs and filet mignon that pussy.." WHAT?! Like, are you SERIOUS right now?

What happened to subtlety?
I always listen to Jill Scott. That woman is my Be all and End all. My love for that woman is unreal. But anyway, I listen to her and she is SO nasty yet classy. "It's hard over there because it's raining on the inside of my womb." "Meat plows as if he's making beats. As if this year's harvest depended on it. Bending on it." D O P E E E E E. Nasty yet... classy & subtle.

Even those artists I had faith in, they have sold their souls to the devil just like the rest of them. Alicia Keys has disappointed me SO much. Remember Diary? Mos Def looking FINE as all hell in that video?! She was so beautiful, braids and all. Voice as pure as anything. But now.. what the HECK is she doing?! With fucking JAY Z of all people! Just don't get it. I only like one of her latest tracks; that Unthinkable with Drake. Coming onto Drake, that's just a Weezy Jnr, talks a lotta shit with absolutely no substance to it whatsoever.

I hate the music scene these days. I've always been into RnB; Dru Hill, Keith Sweat, Jodeci, Tyrese. You expected the "freaky" tunes from them, but it wasn't as explicit as these fools are today. It had feeling, emotion, real raw emotion. Now we have Trey Songz; as fine as that man is his music is just... smh. Even looking at Pop music these days, shameful. Lady fucking Gaga man. I remember when music had passion. Music videos didn't have to have fancy cars, all this extra (unnecessary) shit that just promoted nothing besides materialism. Back in the day we didn't need flashy videos to fall in love with a song. Success wasn't about having the hugest chain, booty, titties, flashiest car, it was about SOUL. Feelings! REAL feelings everyone could relate to.

Nicki Minaj.
Sick flow.
No brain/lyrics to go along with it. Shame really.

It's to the point where I can't even be bothered listening to MTV or BET - Oh Lord, BET, that's a 50 page rant right there. I'm just disgusted. Song after song. Brainwashing the kids. Forcing them to value things which aren't important.

Jill Scott, Amel Larrieux, Musiq Soulchild, D'Angelo, Nina, Chrisette, Floetry, Mos Def, Slum Village, Badu, Kings of Leon, Salif Keita, Anthony Hamilton and Common - to mention a few. That's all I need and that's all I will need until I see a change.

Sorry for the rant. Ha!

12/7/10 13:34  
Blogger Daphne said...

I completely agree with everything you're saying about contemporary music. It's not just rap or even r&b. It's...everything. There are good things, of course, but I agree that there is something that is alive in jazz and motown and early r&b and rock- a dynamic between a man and woman (two people, whatever) that is GONE! Nothing is sexy anymore. It's just sex. Seduction is sexy. Unbearable desire is sexy. That girl with the lollipop....I have no words. I feel like I'm in wonderland, sometimes. Then I just sit back and feel sorry for all of those people who truly DO NOT get it. And I turn on some Nina Simone and call it a night.

13/7/10 01:10  
Anonymous girl6_NYC said...

Ive always listened to all types of music, growing up I had family member who sang & played in bands so I was exposed to everything from the great MJ to the genius of David Bowie the smooth soul of Miles, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, etc... basically no music was off limits in my household and now as an adult I play it all for my kids.

I can't really speak on too much of today's music since we don't listen to the radio in our household, well we dont listen to any NYC radio stations.. We do internet radio & set up artists that we like or we create playlists on our iphone for car trips.

16/7/10 12:42  
Blogger dee said...

Damn, too true. Drake is pretty sexy though.

17/7/10 12:25  

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