spotrusha said:
i don't know if it necessarily "replaced" hip-hop, but what about house/techno? this was for the most part created by black youths.
yes, but house/techno were heavily reliant upon "white" influences from day one
and were then very quickly "co-opted" by whites
so i agree, in large part, with the POLITICAL explanation, i.e., that the vitality of hip hop has everything to do with black americans having successfully kept it their own
which raises several other questions . . . .
(1) why have white americans failed, or in the main not attempted, to appropriate hip hop???
eminem gets serious props from black people, but he's like the only one
and i guess some blacks would rate beastie boys
(2) why is there significant white participation in hip hop production, but rarely in mc'ing?
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ALSO, and is this is to repeat a point made by Reynolds many times over, black artists from the inner city are HUNGRY for success and fame -- and this hunger is the motor of sonic innovation in hip hop
but again, this raises questions like
(1) are white musicians in the rock'n'roll medium less hungry for fame? -- i.e., we all know about the small-scale ambition of indie artists, but is this true across the board for rock musicians, i.e., distrust of fame and success???
(2) or does it have to do with audience expectations? -- i.e., maybe white rock'n'roll audience PREFERS sounds that are not obviously commercial -- and yet this disdain for the mainstream results in a conservative "indie" aesthetic, which has nonetheless been mainstreamed -- whereas black audiences, by contrast, have no such disdain for the commercial or mainstream b/c they already are and always have been at the social margins -- and so black audience by and large looks for fresh sounds that have open designs on market share