*Mainstream = Electronic Music*

When I look at you (Emalkay),

The computadora is still in the shop... bear with me, please, the regular posting will be back sooner than later. In the mean time I've been thinking about the electronic music genre as a whole and the transformation that the genre has incurred over these past few years. When electronic music first came out, it was labeled as 8-bit computer nerd music. Slowly yet surely the music diverged from that path and became more rhythm and bass driven and spurring into the biggest drug music genre since the days of Pink Floyd. After "techno" music was dubbed as ecstacy music and for "ravers", interest in the genre seem to stray away and this can be seen by the complete chart domination by rap and hip hop music during the late 1990s and 2000s. But these days, you can't hear a song on the radio or being played on heavy rotation without some sort of electronic element, whether it's the use of heavy synthesizers, vocal modifiers, or simply ripping off popular electronic songs, the mainstream music monster has successfully absorbed the electronic music sound into its ever shifting definition of what is popular music.

Some might be skeptical when they first hear this radical argument... but is it really that radical? Popular/mainstream music has been defined by a genre (somewhat) for decades as a time. We can see this with mo-town /soul in the 60s, psychadelic/alternative rock during the 70s, disco during the 80s, rap and RnB during the 90s, hip hop during the 2000s and now it's electronic music's turn. Take for instance the biggest chart topping the songs in the last couple months, even as far back as a year or two. The first couple songs that come to mind right now are Tik Tok by Ke$ha, Sexy Bitch by David Guetta ft. Akon, and Shots by LMFAO. Tik Tok which is arguably 2009's biggest party anthem of the year is purely a party and bass driven electronic song with, at best, decent generic lyrics describing alcoholic tendencies. Sexy Bitch is MADE by David Guetta, one of the most prominent electronic/dance DJs that has been around for ages but is now breaking through the mainstream. Shots is another song made by an electronic group, LMFAO, and again another synthy & bouncy track that has semi-decent party lyrics over it.

Mainstream music has been and will continue to change and shift according to the times and what the masses want. But upon closer inspection, it seems as if the idea of mainstream music has not really changed but evolved, it continues to capture the popular elements of rap and hip hop that everyone loves but adds a new twist by putting those fun-loving party rhymes over some serious bass and synth driven dance-techno.

While I am a fervent fan of the electronic music, it's almost a gift and curse with the recent popular emergence of electronic music because while it's awesome to see the genre of music you really like finally get its turn in the spotlight, at the same time it hurts to see the shameless exploitation that the genre is going to naturally incur along with the other genres that have been enveloped by the mainstream music monster. Just look at the 1990s if you want an example of a shameless exploitation of a music genre. Rap from its humble beginnings was about empowerment to the people who had no power and had no voice. Rap was musical poetry that expressed the emotions of oppressed people and times and gave the impoverished and the ghettos a chance to be seen through the eyes of the people who were living in it. Rap was my first musical love, it was powerful, cool, stylish and was trying to say something more than "let's get tipsy and light up." But after the commercial success of rap, the floodgates opened for every average joe that could rhyme a couple words together. Gimmicks, egos and characters began to sell records instead of the content itself and nobody seemed to be actually listening to the music. No longer were the days of Adidas superstars and gold dukey ropes where we learned to say the "fuck da police" and became fans of ghetto poetry that brought to light the social inequities that ran rampant through the inner cities of America... the 2000s ushered in a new type of rapper, the pimp, the hustler and the gangsta. Your lyrics didn't matter, your flow didn't matter, your message didn't even matter... the way you got rich was having all the girls, selling the most drugs and making the most money, and surviving the most bullet shots. Rap became a glorified arena for wannabe big shots who lusted for the action packed lives of the criminals they idolized; John Gotti, Pablo Escobar, etc. One might ask, "where did it all go wrong?", and that's easy, as soon as Universal Records offered the first guaranteed 7-figure contract to a rap group, the market for the next big rapper became over saturated with everybody and their momma trying to become a rapper. The music industry doesn't reward lyrical ability and skills, they reward record sales, and with an ever-dumbing audience, music about drugs, chauvinism, and reckless behavior was gobbled up by the idiotic masses. Rappers didn't rap anymore to vocalize their unheard opinions, they rapped to become rich, and that is where music ALWAYS goes wrong, when it's no longer about making a quality product but making the highest profit margins.

I'm not Nastradamus or am I trying to be a negative nancy, but just give it some time and every song you hear on the radio is going to have an electronic-esque beat and the genre will give way to every kid with a laptop and turntables trying to make a quick buck while the genre is the "it" thing.... or at least that's what I think.

Tell me what you think and where music's going, electronic music's going and why mainstream music sucks. (I haven't listened to the radio actively since middle school... and that's a long time ago)

Peace,

20thetruth