Have you heard music these days? Don't get me wrong I too have downloaded my fair share of Lady Gaga and Ke$ha and other various artists from Rhapsody (I don't have iTunes... I'm such a rebel lol), but have you ever stopped to actually listen to the lyrics and to the beat. Here's my advice (whether you want it or not), listen to an "old" 70s or even 80s song. Then listen to a song of today like, "TiK ToK" By: Ke$ha or "Baby" By: Justin Bieber. You'll see that the music of today is totally different than from the music of yesterday.
The reason why I put "old" in quotations marks was because to some naive, ignorant people it is "old." For me, it's real music. It's where the true art began. Don't get me wrong I listen to today's music just as much as I do music from the past. Artists like Janis Joplin, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, James Brown, Prince, Madonna, Diana Ross & The Supremes and MANY, MANY MORE have changed the world and the music industry with they're songs, dance moves, acting, singing, performing. We should be paying homage to these beautiful artists.
The reason why I asked if you have ever listened to the lyrics of a song was because back then lyrics used to be meaningful. People talked about love and relationships in a respectable way, they talked about politics, how to change the world and many other things. There were (and still are) several topics for a song. Heck, it could even be about fried chicken like Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" song or about a big green tractor like Jason Aldean's "Big Green Tractor" song! See! Anything can be a song! But nowadays all you see are women in skimpy outfits or stripping, men throwing cash, banging every girl they see and counting their money. Especially in hip-hop and rap music videos. I absolutely LOVE and RESPECT hip-hop and rap as a musical genre just like pop, rock or country but it's just the music videos that get to me. Most hip-hop and rap songs of today has a great beat and you could definitely go clubbing and hear the song or go to a party and dance to it, but the music videos are all pretty much the same. I'm not generalizing all the music videos, because some of them are different than others. In most of the music videos there is sex, money or drugs in it. People in hip-hop/rap music videos are either counting their money, stripping, smoking or throwing money to strippers, etc. For me, it's pretty boring. You could be a little more creative & artistic with the music videos, instead of showing the same actions over & over again. It's not just the hip-hop music videos that have this same theme, but pop as well. Mostly all the music videos are like this. There are other ways of getting people's attention besides doing these things and everyone out there knows it true. Lil' Wayne's a great rapper but I think that the only reason why people like him (besides his rapping) and put him on their Facebook music list is because he smokes openly and that influences other middle and high schoolers to do drugs and smoke. He makes smoking look cool and so more teenagers appeal to him & wanna smoke just like he does. Four words: Smoking is never cool. He even wrote a song called, "Lollipop" which has a great beat but the message of the song is basically sex. I understand that you have to be an artist and do your thing but you have to be respectful and considerate of other young people. Whether young people (like me) like to admit it or not, we ARE influenced pretty easily, especially by our parents, friends, celebrities and the media.
Another thing I hate is auto tune. Nowadays record companies have gotten soo lazy that they'll just get any hot guy or pretty girl (that has a not-so-great voice when singing live), auto tune them, make an album and book concerts for their world tour. Seriously?!? Are you serious? I mean, I understand that you use auto tune to perfect certain notes here and there (because nobody's perfect) but to auto tune most of the person's voice is ridiculous! For example, Ke$ha is pretty & her songs are catchy but her voice is soo computerized that I don't even know how her true singing voice is like... or if she even has one. Just sayin'! I was watching Glee weeks ago and Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress was there and she also sang. I understand that you would like to try out everything (acting, singing, dancing, etc.) but I just didn't see her as a singer. She should stick to acting. Her voice was pretty good but I just don't see her as a singer.
For me, a true artist is being a role model for young children and young adults out there. It's about having meaningful lyrics and not just flaunting your wealth. You're rich... WE KNOW! Can you talk about something else...? A true artist also donates his or her time, money & influence to an important cause. They give back to the community, they act humble & modest and NOT like a whore or a gigolo. There's a double standard about that. If a man gets a lot of women then he's the man! If a women gets a lot of guys, then she's a whore. That's wrong! I feel like a guy should treat his women with respect and give her love and not bang every chick he sees. Ya know? A true artist is singing about something that sometimes, you haven't even experienced AT ALL but yet, making it sooo believable to the audience and public thus, evoking true emotion from them. I feel that nowadays we have lost the true essence of what it is to be a true artist and I fear we'll never get it back because people aren't opening their eyes and actually seeing how they're really acting.
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