qwerty south

no use for a witticism
Did loads of writing on this in relation to hip hop / 'urban' music (some archived as blog host shut down):


1. An investigation of whether Beyonce's song 'Single Ladies' was written as propaganda for the diamond industry. See https://www.seolondonsurrey.co.uk/blog/beyonce-and-the-diamond-marketing-machine

2. An investigation of the conflicted hip hop marketing man and social campaigner Russell Simmons (former head of Def Jam Records): https://web.archive.org/web/2011112...k/articles.cfm/title/the-ceo-of-hiphop/id/814

3. An investigation of the origin of Run DMC's song 'My Adidas': http://web.archive.org/web/20110831202639/http://ukhhreviews.posterous.com/moral-panic-marketing-by-chris-byrne

4. An investigation of subliminal brand placement in the music of P Diddy & Pharrell Williams: http://web.archive.org/web/20110831202639/http://ukhhreviews.posterous.com/sonic-branding-subliminal-brand-placement-by

5. An investigation of the use of Run DMC's Jam Master Jay in advertising after his death:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110831202639/http://ukhhreviews.posterous.com/even-jam-master-jays-in-the-cemetery
noticed that one of the links in my previous post was broken so found the archived version:

 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I've been meaning to start a thread on commodified London, a glossy repackaged version of London street culture with the poverty and desperation airbrushed out. A Shoreditch box park vision of creatives in box fresh Nike Airs, smiling, multiracial, good looking and cool exemplified in my mind by an addidas advert that was inescapable on youtube a few months back and soundtracked by Ms Banks-Chat to Mi Gyal.

I was thinking about this (not deeply, as I was pissed) the other day cos I went into the office for someone's leaving do. I rarely go in. The team is mostly people younger than me, mid to late 20s. They had a playlist on in the office and it was SO BLAND. And then we went to this pub and inside the pub they were playing music which was also SO BLAND.

I'd say much of it was faintly disco derived, generic funky basslines, possibly post bruno mars background music.

And because I'd heard both those things on the same day I thought maybe this is what music 'is' for a lot of people now, it's something 'chilled' in the background that you have on when you're working or out drinking. It's very much tied in with Spotify and those services, a spotify playlist called 'Chilled to the max' or whatever.

Perhaps ever was it thus. But I sort of feel the same draining of actual meaning and significance from a lot of the less poppy, more 'urban' music too. As usual could just be that i'm almost 40 now so naturally Central Cee is going to appeal to me less than to an 18 year old.

But 'airbrushed' is good here, too. The rough edges removed. I was thinking in that other thread where dilbert was saying he likes that band that sounds like 90s shoegaze, maybe if 'da kids' really are into that stuff then it's a sort of reaction to the unbearable smoothness of so much of the music that's now so mainstream. Not a particularly great reaction, and maybe it's all of a piece with it, cos it's close to ambient, it's lacking a genuine pulse.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
I was thinking about this (not deeply, as I was pissed) the other day cos I went into the office for someone's leaving do. I rarely go in. The team is mostly people younger than me, mid to late 20s. They had a playlist on in the office and it was SO BLAND. And then we went to this pub and inside the pub they were playing music which was also SO BLAND.

I'd say much of it was faintly disco derived, generic funky basslines, possibly post bruno mars background music.

And because I'd heard both those things on the same day I thought maybe this is what music 'is' for a lot of people now, it's something 'chilled' in the background that you have on when you're working or out drinking. It's very much tied in with Spotify and those services, a spotify playlist called 'Chilled to the max' or whatever.

Perhaps ever was it thus. But I sort of feel the same draining of actual meaning and significance from a lot of the less poppy, more 'urban' music too. As usual could just be that i'm almost 40 now so naturally Central Cee is going to appeal to me less than to an 18 year old.
I've said it before on here but my take on this is that some of the functions that music used to fulfill have been replaced by other cultural forms. Particularly things like music being a source of identity, something that you can passionately cling to, being a vessel for your own hopes and ambitions, feeling 'seen' by lyrics, music as a transmission mechanism for ideas and lifestyles. That is to say, a lot of the aspects of music that gave it meaning and significance.

I think everyone gets a bit blinded by thinking that the place of music in culture is always going to be the same as what it was from the 70s to the mid-2010s. More and more that looks like something temporary and contingent, and we've moved past it. Coz the communications environment is totally different.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
One of the reasons I found bronx drill stuff exciting (for a few weeks lol) was that it was absolutely not something you could have playing in an office or a craft beer pub, it sounds messy and amateurish, its massively antisocial, it's a bloody racket. You can't imagine hearing that stuff even in JD Sports.
 

wild greens

Well-known member
I think some of it is a byproduct of being "into" off-track London radio music & club environments as well, though; for the most part mainstream music has always been pretty straight and bland, outside of a lot of rap/r&b in the 90s/00s

It's hard to adjust getting older and out of that music/those scenes and just going back to the basic pub environments, or the standard spotify/apple playlists that they feed you. You want the inventiveness of what you've been raised on but it doesn't really exist unless you're still part of the underground scenes and who can be arsed with that now
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
actually UK rap at the moment, not that it's particularly my kind of thing, really has that affective/personality/confessional thing going on.
 

wild greens

Well-known member
A lot of UK rap is in a horrible state tbh but it has also been co-opted into the same old industry mechanism that they're all in. 90% of the "big" tapes coming out are fake independents or big label distro, loads of really obvious placements, the likes of Aitch being treated like something credible lol

Just been commodified really

Potter Payper tape was great tho i will defend that happily
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
its kind of passed without comment i think (in what i read anyway) but the new uk rap thing is presumably the successor to the shit / second wave of grime from 2015ish, where suddenly normie kids were sitting in gloucester green playing boy better know off thier phones.
 
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