Will we always love the 80’s? - Youth culture, MP3’s and generational shifts

B-Boy - 80's

UMM... yes!

Each generation of American youth culture has looked upon the previous rebel generation for that inspiration. Punkers looked back at the 50’s, Hippies looked at the Beats, B-boys looked back at Funk, and so forth. Now we have a generation of kids looking back at the 80’s and becoming inspirited by MJ, dance movies, bright clothes, and electro styles. Those eras of inspiration felt worlds apart, yet attainable. It felt like we opened a Pandora’s box that our older generation totally forgot as they have became the stiff and stuffed shirts that we wanted to rebel against. We felt devious!

The Skinny Jeans massive - 2009

But have we slowed this natural selection down to a crawl? I’m wondering if the accessibility of music due to the internet and MP3’s, plus the lack of any new significantly different storage formats since digital music, has made it easier for 18-20 year olds to connect with earlier music and culture? Furthermore, with the leveling off of musical format (the MP3) are we at a plateau where youngers can look deeper and further and access a wider range of sound and sources in ways we never could before, thus leveling off generational shifts?

Black Panther Party - 60's

Public Enemy - 89'

In my day, my house had an eight-track, a record player, a tape deck with a radio… and a CD player, requiring crate digging and some learning to navigate and pull music. The musical jump from Rock and Soul to Hip Hop felt significant where instrumentals and source material became easily choppable on turnbables, people stopped singing and started rhyming, and kids started buying turntables instead of guitars. As we’re reaching 2010, the CD has been in most homes for a while, and the only big difference in storage is that digital music is downloadable versus just being confined to CD’s. Musically, what new genre has emerged in American music since Hip Hop? It’s been 30 years since its birth and any other music to emerge have been hybrids or variations of older formulas. And when supposedly progressive Soul music is prefaced with the word ‘neo’, is that really progress? But maybe I’m just talking like an old fart.

Acid Test Party - early 60's

Rave - 1990's

The other thing about digital and MP3’s is that all sounds have now become electronic, choppable, and we now live in a world where the complete is now mosaic. Back in the day, to make a sample took time and equipment. You can now sample using iTunes. The music industry now complains that ‘we can’t sell entire albums anymore’ and the ‘era of the artist album is dead’. Now you see club nights that tell of DJ’s spinning mashups and programs like Serato and Abelton allow you to mix just about any track of any BPM smoothly and effectively.

Elvis Presley as the Greaser - 1950's

Joey Ramone as the Punk - 1970's

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for change. Purists that say software is killing true Hip Hop can bite one. I also think this leveling of music and the giant accessibility can spawn a diverse range of expressions and music that will be hyper enjoyable. Mind you, people still play guitars and drums. But now I can download some Edith Pilaf, Gregorian Chant, and some Spiritual field songs and use them on my latest Dubstep tune. What do you think?

Madonna - 80's

Lady GaGa - 2009

"Sexy Office Party Music" - aka - my Pantheon of classic R&B

Its in your best interest right now to turn off your office lights, turn up ur speakers, and let the computer monitor's glow warm you to these smooth sounds. Cause its the Quiet "Sexy Office Party" Storm [insert thunder sound here]!

Actually, this post is for me to share with you who I rate as the greatest voices in R&B... yeah a few could be up here... but this is by far my ultimate very best picks according to "Juice-Scan"... so there you go... and if you don't like it make a blog ;-P

... and obviously, there is a girl related to all this...

Kool Moe Dee v. Busy Bee... and the veil

Its just way to cool to come across these two pieces of tape from 81. Before listening, my image of Busy Bee was in Style Wars, and Kool Moe Dee was in cheesy rap tunes where he was acting too hard for his own good. But now I get a chance to see them in their natural element knocking each other over.

In comparison to their media appearances these clips show them with the energy and fury that I knew early 80's Hip Hop had but never got to see, alongside the breaks and DJ'ing that were pushed forward later on. But for all you connoisseurs, you know that the first presentations of Hip Hop hid the breaks, the real raps, and the curse words and anger for commercial crossover. So its mad refreshing to see this.

Whats even cooler is going back before this to old school Zulu Nation tapes and checkign out Jazzy Jay and Bambaattaa right when the genre was in its germination stage and closely connected to Reggae soundsystem culture.

BTW... Kool Moe Dee MURDERED Busy Bee!!

The world's most important 6 second drum loop

Its the history of the Amen break, one of the most important pieces of music in the modern age. It shows the connections between Reggae, Soul, Hip Hop and Jungle... pretty much my musical journey.

Zed Bias Ft. MC Rumpus & Nicky Prince - Neighbourhood 09 (Roska Remix)

WHOOAA!!! What a gem, and another reason I'm digging the Funky House vibes.

Von D feat. Phephe - "Show Me" Official Video

Oh my lord! One of the sexiest pieces of music I've heard. This and Hyph Mngo fuckin thrill me as top dance tunes of 2009.

Celebrating Albinism Week - Day 5 thoughts on 20/20's show on Albinism

I was asked about the recent show regarding Albinism on 20/20 last Friday. Here is my summation of thoughts in true social science approach. LOL. To get a bigger scope on my views, check out my “Celebrating Albinism Week” tag at the right side of this blog.

PRE-SHOW DISPOSITIONS
There are a few conditions I carried with me before watching the show.

1. This was being presented on Friday evening, shaping the delivery of this report to baby boomers and older folk.
2. This was 20/20, a news magazine notorious for smothering the pathos all over the place, which it did quite effectively for the albinism report.
3. The report was not going to be directed to me, but to the rest of ya’ll who do not have Albinism.
4. I have my own defense mechanisms at play… but don’t we all when we see our own on screen.

The next set of conditions we should look at are ‘outcomes’ of what this report is supposed to do. Here are some particular outcomes I devised...

1. How educated was the audience about albinism after the show was over?
2. How useful could this information be after the show was over? (i.e. can the audience leave with any tools of wisdom and techniques to be applied in their day to day?)
3. How representative was the show in depicting people with Albinism?
4. How much of our own voice, in our own terms, was delivered to the audience?

SHOW REFLECTIONS

1. Yet again, within the first five minutes of the show, the whole association of us with other creatures was made clear as alligators, birds, snakes, were shown alongside us. Huh? I wonder where this concept of animalizing the ‘other’ first began? The only other piece of information was a brief disclosure of our susceptibility to skin cancer and sunlight. A more complex definition of Albinism that includes a description of the VARIETIES of conditions with Albinism can be found here. Yes family, there is more than one type of albinism.
2. If you saw the show, you can answer for yourself… as for me… zero
3. In a positive note, I dug the variety of individuals (the model, the young baby, the little man, etc). I also dug that we had folks embracing it in different ways. I was actually quite surprised about the young lady who chose to pass. Studying African American literature so long, I couldn’t help but associate passing with the African American experience, I was hurt by that one, especially coming from a White girl (the irony is ridiculous).
4. I would give this a “C”. There were a variety of views, but not enough variety of views or opinions that broke away from the pathos lens being applied to each person. A lack of complicating the matter.

A side-note on the whole section about Tanzania….
Alright WTF was that!?!? Unfortunately, I felt that piece became an indictment on Tanzania rather than about Albinism, who were used as catalysts to highlight certain conditions taking place. The United States STILL has problems understanding Africa and the image this country has on the continent needs some serious reform. I don’t think this piece helped in that in any way, shape, or form. If the intention was to depict Albinism globally, then we can look at a survey of cultures that includes the Caribbean, American Indian nations, and Latin America… who each have different takes on the subject. I was VERY hurt on this one.

POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
In the end, watching this program reminded me of many ‘first presentations’ of so many other groups in the media. Initial depictions of Africans, Mayans, folks in the LGBTQ community, and folks with disabilities, used lenses full of soot, inaccuracy and extreme pathos to ‘translate’ and make us palatable to mainstream audiences. I remember taking an African American history class that showed early pics of Africans before the onslaught of chattel-slavery and how Africans were viewed using Greek and Roman motifs. I remember learning about how folks in the LGBT community were first studied as medical misfits and ‘sick’. I remember seeing “Different Strokes” where the episode was about Willis not wanting to go out with a girl because she used a wheelchair. While the level of ‘hurt’ or pain applied in these examples differs, each of them share the common problem that its not the Albino who is inaccurate, but the lenses used to portray us are so misguiding and limited that the bridge of true relationship building across groups is completely useless. Why would you even want to cross a bridge if its made of straw and rope, when you can work a bit harder to create a bridge of wood and metal for a safer crossing?

There was a bit of discussion on my Facebook about the validity of this show as a good tool to ‘educate’ people about Albinism, between two African American females with Albinism and myself. Argument 1 was that we needed this show to educate folks as a starting point. Argument 2 was that sometimes we shouldn’t feel so obligated to ‘teach’ all the time as we are also human beings and deserve a break sometimes.

In the end, “Argument 2” became a moot point as the show did not utilize folks with Albinism to present themselves from any position of power (I don’t know if any Albinos produced the show, wrote the script, created the questions, chose the shots for the camera, etc.). We were the targets of the lens in a both literal and abstract definition of the term. As for “Argument 1”, is it really Education if the tools and techniques to teach are embedded historically in promoting inaccuracy and limited profiles of the subject? It is Education at the most basic level of presenting data, but not Education as the outcomes did not truly ‘educate’ anyone of their postionality to folks with Albinism. We are left felt sorry for, slightly happy that some of us had a sense of determination… and that pretty much is all you were left with… too bad.

Hip Hop in Outer Space

Hip Hop is both reality and escapist music. So connections to outer space and the cosmos is a very comfortable marriage, yet not recognized as widely as I'd hoped. So here is a survey of interplanetary MCs and DJ's doin the thing!!!























And the daddy of it all...