I think Rap / Hip-Hop Music is fading out

[jtex316]

Mark my words:

By 2010, Rock Music (whatever it is at the time) will be the most popular form of music listened to in this country.

Right now, Rap is above and beyond by far the most listened to music in this country, but that's about to change.  Rap's top artists have been fading away for the last year or so, and their shock & awe effect is gone. 

The only thing that can renergize rap music is another Eminem type guy who comes in and shocks the world, but that's a once in a generation type thing, so you can forget about it.

What's going to probably take over is Rock Bands that have more of a "Rap" style to them, like Linkin Park, Limp Biskit, Korn, etc. 

Besides, you can only sample so many songs before it becomes more of a novelty item than anything else.  Back when Puff Daddy sampled The Police's "Every Breath You Take" about 10 years ago, sampling music became all the rage.  While it's still done to this very day, it is dying in popularity, and is becoming a quick laugh and a fad with the American public.

Dave Gray will agree with me on this that it's a cycle - eventually, popular music will rotate back to simple guitar + drums.  I'm just putting a date on it - 2010.  4 years from now, i want you to gravedig this thread out of the pits of the TDMMC forum, and be in awe of my amazing prediction abilities.

[Denver_Bronco]

I can't wait till rap fades out. As much of a fan as i am of it i can't stand sitting on the bus on the way here and listening to 3,000 idiots "rhyming", or so they think, and they just are so sure they are the next big thing. 

I miss the late 80's & 90's when rap wasn't "bling this, bling that", or "look at all my cars and my ice." There is only so many times you can hear that.

I have been listening to more & more rock and other stuff lately.

[Frimp]

Jtex, I hope you're right.

[JVides]

Hope so, Jtex, but my feeling is something new will come along to replace Rap at some point.

[Dave Gray]

My theory about the Lead Instrument (usually guiatar, but sometimes piano) + Bass + Drums cycle doesn't really count for all music, just for rock.  To the contrary, I think that this whole rap/rock (Linkin Park) thing will be gone, as will the techno-rock (Moby, Beck) and country-rock thing.  You're already seeing it with the British re-invasion.

Rock is always changing...it'll spread out in a new direction, but eventually it will go too far, and revert back to the basic guitar (or piano), bass, and drums, backed by songwriting, and will drop whatever "sound" is hip for the time.

It happened with Disco, it happened with Metal, it happened with Techno, and it'll happen with Rap-Rock.

[Brian Fein]

First off, I think more people in this country listen to country music than rap/hip-hop.  But, I digress.

I agree that Rap is getting "played out" as they say.  I used to listen to rap all the time, almost exclusively.  It was in High School when I got into rap and stayed with it until college, when my thug roommate blasted Wu-Tang at all hours, and I recruited the services of Metallica to combat him.  Linkin Park pretty much drew me back into the hard rock scene, when I got into Limp Bizkit, Korn, Disturbed, and Godsmack.  After a few shows (Bonzai, Projekt Revolution, Summer Sanitarium, etc.) there's no turning back.

I occasionally hear a good hip-hop song, from Kanye or someone new, but few and far between these days.

(I'm finding myself listening to some Maine-style pop music too, these days)

[Phishfan]

Some of this music you guys are mentioning will fade have been going strong since the '70s. I don't think you will be seeing rap or country-rock disappear anytime soon. Both of them have strong bases and have been going on for way too long to be considered a fad.

You may hear them fade from "popular" radio, but who listens to that crap anyway? You don't have to be on the radio to have a successful band. I wish more artists would understand that

[Dave Gray]

You may hear them fade from "popular" radio, but who listens to that crap anyway? You don't have to be on the radio to have a successful band. I wish more artists would understand that

That's all I'm talking about.  There will always be every kind of music.  ...but I'm just talking about what you see on the radio and MTV.  There are too many people in the world creating music to think that any genre will go away.

Music is akin to fashion.  It always comes back around, when things go too far.

Everyone has baggier jeans...then baggier, then you're some people are buying jeans from the Big and Tall, and then just wearing a belt.  ...then everyone realizes it's stupid, and it goes back to regular jeans.

...then they start getting tighter, and tigher...until it's just ridiculous, and they go back. 

Then people start wearing their belt-line lower and lower, until their ass is literally hanging out...then that will go back.

[jtex316]

The one big knock on Rap / Hip-Hop is that you really can't see the artist perform in concert, and if they do perform in concert, it almost always sucks.  In Hip-Hop there is a lot of studip generated noise and music, and it sounds out of synch and just awful live in person when the artist is singing over the music or whatever.

The other thing that ruins live Rap concerts is when the artist brings out his entire crew of 350 staff and personnel, and every second is filled with someone screaming "Yeah!", "Uh-Huh", "What?", "uh-uh-uh!!".

This is similar to pop music.  The live concerts just sound bad. 

[CdnDolfan]

Some of this music you guys are mentioning will fade have been going strong since the '70s. I don't think you will be seeing rap or country-rock disappear anytime soon. Both of them have strong bases and have been going on for way too long to be considered a fad.

I absolutely agree.  I grew up disliking hip-hop/rap and thought it was just a fad... well its been a "fad" for almost 40 years now, and it has kept getting bigger and bigger.  I finally saw the light first year of college and slowly got into it, and right now it's the major form of music that I listen to.  I still listen to rock, alternative, punk and the occasional pop, and enjoy them.

I don't think sampling is a huge problem, the good producers out there come up with their own rhythms and beats, and are more musically inclined than some lead guitar player who can play only 2 or 3 chords.  Also a lot of times sampling is a shoutout to artists they respect and want to pay tribute too... not everyone is like Diddy or Kanye (yes all Kanye does is sample old R&B, blues and jazz records and puts lyrics over them, he's not a great producer).   

I do think that gangsta rap and southern "crunk" rap might fade into a lesser role within the next 5 years, but they will always be there. 

jtex's point about live shows is fairly valid, most new hip hop artists don't have the cardio endurance to do their entire set, and hip hop is very lyrics intensive.  Some older MCs used to run track just so they can be more fluid in their performances.  I actually think that small venue hip hop acts are really good and have great energy, but it's the large concerts that really suck.  A lot of the times the beat is so loud you can't hear the artist.

[jtex316]

I'm not even saying that Rap is a fad, because it clearly is NOT.
Also...Rap has been around for 40 years?  Forty?  Like in 1966 and shit?

I think that Rap Music's two popularity apexes came in 1992, when Dr. Dre came out with "The Chronic", which was revolutionary, and then in the very late 1990's / very early 2000's when Eminem released 3 albums that were ultra-mega popular and controversial at the same time.

While there have seemed to been some other artists come around like 50 Cent, and whoever, the genre is now on the steady decline, and should remain on it.  Someday some artist probably will, but I find it difficult to believe you can get more of a shock value and craze rush of fans like when Eminem burst onto the scene in our generation. 

Rock Music seems to have never gone away, despite being completely overshadowed at times in popularity status to Hip-Hop, but it also has never spiked really high since about 1990-1992, where Metallica, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam were all over the place.

Since everything works in cycles, I hereby predict that the Rock Music Cycle will go though a huge popularity period within the next 4-5 years, which will interest that generation of middle and high schoolers more than Rap music will - because Rap music in their ears will be the stuff "that they listened to when they were in Elementary School".  May sound stupid, but kids will tend to listen to what is popular, and that better not be from 2 years ago.

[jtex316]

About Sampling:

I have some problems with it, but it has it's place, and sometimes it's really good.  For example I thought when Puff Daddy did his "Every Breath You Take" sample, that was really good.  But then he had a string of like 5 hit songs all in a row that were obvious 70's and 80's Pop and R&B samples, and it got out of control.

I have a VERY big problem with it when a band breaks through in popularity and comes on to the scene with a sample.  It's like saying "We're not good enough to write and record our own, original stuff, so we're just going to take the work of someone else and spice it up a bit, and that's how we're going to become popular, because otherwise, we suck".

And this is not limited to Rap - Rock bands and Pop singers are starting to do this and it's pissing me off.  Example: Alien Ant Farm.  They came onto the scene with a Fast Rock version of "Smooth Criminal" (The artist is my avatar).  Great.  Now What?  Nothing, they came out with some other shit-fest song, and their career has ended.  Like that guy who sampled that Ray Charles song (conviniently after the "Ray" movie came out).  Who the hell is that? 

I'd rather artists do cover songs instead of taking the beats and / or lyrics and just shifting them around.  For example, Korn.  They did "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, and it was OK.  Had they taken the music of the song and made up some stupid cheesy lyrics, it would have sucked hard.

[GUATARICCAN]

I've been saying this for a long time. The last good hip-hop album to come out was 50 cent's debut. Everything else that has come out is garbage! IMO. I miss the days of Biggie, Pac, and Wu-tang when they would actually tell stories and not just rap about their new rims and gold grills.

[gocowboys31]

I miss the late 80's & 90's when rap wasn't "bling this, bling that", or "look at all my cars and my ice." There is only so many times you can hear that.

This is the exact problem with today's rap music. It's all about bling, and ass shaking. I disagree that rap is fading though. Their are still plenty of rappers & groups who still have respect and a true aprreciation for the artform.  The problem is none of these groups will sellout and go mainstream. P. diddy can sell 50 million records, but the cat has no love  in the streets. Rap is about creativity& longevity.


My favorite group is Gangstarr, only one of their records went gold, but in the hip-hop community they're considered pioneers who made classic material, but never sacrificed their morals and beliefs for a fast dollar.


Common, dilated peoples, jurrasic 5, The roots, Nas, Redman, Rakim, M.O.P, That IMO is considered real hip- hop, not this club bouncing, bling bling shit. As my man GURU said that music is known as "SOMETHING ELSE".

[YoFuggedaboutit]

My favorite group is Gangstarr, only one of their records went gold, but in the hip-hop community they're considered pioneers who made classic material, but never sacrificed their morals and beliefs for a fast dollar.

Gang Starr aka Guru!!!!  Man, that was one of my phattest albums back at the K.