Oh, Hi!

I have returned...

Been very busy with College work, or rather not doing College work, but let's not get into that.

Proper updates are incoming, I've got a couple of reviews on Hot Chip's Made in the Dark and Vampire Weekend's eponymous debut that should find their way onto this blog sooner or later.

For the time being I just thought I'd share a thought provoking article I found on Guardian Unlimited's blog page sort of 'area' that I found whilst looking for a review for The Kills latest album.

The couple of tracks I heard just now on Jools Holland sound quite sexy if I say so myself. I had a image of them being another bland 'rent-a-rockstar' type Indie bands that so many bands that have the prefix 'The' seem to be, but refreshingly they couldn't be further from that. A nice minimal guitar-vocals duo that's quite hard to describe in anyway so I'll just leave it to you to work out what I mean.

Anyway enough of going off on Gonzoesque tangents and back on message, I found this and found it quite interesting, especially in comparision to my (much) earlier 'Indie not all that Indie' post and a conversation I was having earlier today about the rise and inevitable fall of 'Indie' rock.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/02/nme_awards_turning_rebellion_i.html


Turning up at the O2 arena in Greenwich last night was an exercise in quelling cynicism. In an effort to "extend the brand", legendary music magazine NME has moved its annual awards bash to the former Dome, hugely expanded it and appended a "big gig" for 17,000 paying fans to the end. The question was: could the distilled spirit of rock 'n' roll be found here, among the fake palm trees, myriad themed restaurants, ice skating rink, ancient egyptian treasures and punters queuing to see Rambo?

Hip Hop is dying

The future of Hip' Hop?

All eyes, for the moment at least, are on Hip’ Hop. Next week will see the release of the Third albums of arguably the genre’s two biggest stars, Kanye West’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis

Its an important date for the music industry too as this blog from a Chicago Tribune Blog points out.. http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2007/09/showdown-betwee.html


Two of the biggest-selling artists of the last four years go head-to-head Tuesday in the record stores with new albums: Kanye West’s “Graduation” (Good/Roc-A-Fella) and 50 Cent’s “Curtis” (Aftermath/Interscope).
It’s a big day not just for West and 50, but for the ailing music industry. With sales down 30 percent this year, the major labels who have dominated music for the last half-century are in need of a blockbuster album (seven or eight of them, actually) as the holiday buying season looms into view. Hip-hop in particular is tanking. In the ‘90s the genre led the surge in CD sales. Now it’s in the doldrums, with only three of the top-20 best-selling titles of 2007.

Hip’ Hop may not quite be ‘dead’ as the album title of Nas’s latest effort suggests, but its definitely in decline.

Why is this the case?

Well, my generation at least and seemingly the market as a whole has been turning enmass away from Hip Hop towards the skyrocketing genre’s of rock, whether that be emo, indie or even the classic variety.

Quite a range of tastes and preferences, which mainstream Hip Hop, just doesn’t have. Its dominated still by gangster rap and chauvinistic men boasting about their strength, magnetism and how many times they’ve been shot. Its not exactly appealing to the music fan who wants a bit more substance from their music.

Cue a great exodus of teenagers, including me, who were of the age were you truly become critical of the music you listen to, rather than merely accepting it. As a result a whole generation of 14 and 15 year olds switched allegiances away from the Hip’ Hop and embraced Rock which had arguably suffered its own crisis in the late 90’s where in the temporary gulf in the absence of Britpop, it was perhaps justifiably seen as the genre for miserable Goths, if you told someone you listened to rock. Jokes about Korn and Slipknot would invariably follow.

Rock has since smashed into the mainstream and managed to diversify itself, the NME lead revolution of fresh garage rock bands such as the Strokes and The White Stripes replaced the since Dormant Blur and Oasis and Pop Punk bands such as Blink 182 and Sum 41 offered a more cheerful alternative to Korn and Slipknot, unfortunately these two strands of Rock would later create two of the most despicable social scenes ever created in history, ‘Indie’ and ‘Emo’ but that is the price you have to pay for mainstream success.

Hip Hop will need to innovate itself once again and provide, like Rock has , greater variety, more originality and greater creativity to pull itself out of its rut, mainstream hip hop is and has been for quite some time, dominated by this ultra masculine and often homophobic figures which as gun crime spirals in the UK appears less and less attractive.

Hip Hop’s great hope lies In artists like the outspoken Kanye West, the self proclaimed nerd, who is more than happy to throw in political and social commentaries into his lyrics rather than talking about shooting cops and has denounced homophobia and chauvinism in Hip Hop in the past.

Or the outstanding Outkast, Imparticular the unpredictable Andre 3000, who is more than happy like, Kanye West to borrow from other genre’s, throwing in a guitar lick here and there and lending drums that sound more like drum and bass than a traditional hip hop loop. Rock music has always been ’borrowing’ from traditionally black genre’s, Rock juggernauts Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones have made their fame and fortune on blues rock originated from the deep south of America.

It’s time for Hip’ Hop to lend back some ideas to level the playing field and claw back some fans. Next weeks chart battle is not as simple as a fight between two stars of the genre, as Blur vs. Oasis was in the 90’s, its far more important than that. It is a battle between the new wave of Hip’ Hop and the old, the future and the past. Kanye may not win the popular vote, but it is his brand of Hip Hop that offers the genre’s greatest potential growth for the genre.

Indie, not all that Indie?

A piece/mini-rant I wrote on Last Fm




Independent 'Indie' music is defined in Wikipedia as...

indie music (from independent) is any of a number of genres, scenes, subcultures and stylistic and cultural attributes, characterised by perceived independence from commercial pop music and mainstream culture and an autonomous, do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.


Well, there is definitely a perceived independence from commercial pop music and the mainstream culture, prevalent in much of the 'Indie' media, imparticular the bible of every Indie Kid (at least here in the UK) The New musical express or NME.

But as Indie music has risen in popularity or at least a certain brand of Indie music, is it truly Indie anymore? With a army of bands following the blueprint left behind by 'pioneers' such as Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes and the Arctic Monkeys, all with their own accented singer, two guitars, bass and drums, all looking very identikit and bland. The appearance of bands like this wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t money in it, and this is evident from the many indie bands that occupy the charts, has Indie music simply become to an extent a branch of music that every teenager cringes at the though of; Pop? Has it simply become a tag to throw on that cheery band with the catchy riffs to give it credibility?

Yes, they are for the most part on Independent labels, but that’s irrevalant if every other 'independent' label chases the same formula to achieve commercial success rather than as independent labels should strive to do, encourage and nurture artistic freedom and creativity. Which the huge music labels such as EMI cannot be 'trusted' to do?

Now I know there's plenty of other bands that get labelled with Indie, who are actually very independent from the 'mainstream' and probably deserve the tag, but for every...say Arcade Fire or Bjork (If they're allowed to count) there’s a dozen 'The View' 'The Frateillis' and 'the Rakes'

Anyway, to get to the point, and what id like to see what people think, has Indie simply become a fashion statement, a tag to add kudos to a band, or does it still have meaning and actually mean independent boundary pushing music and the appearance of these four piece guitar bands just the mainstream radio friendly face of a healthier than ever indie scene?



Joseph Richards