I was thinking about music, and life, as I usually do, when I began to reflect upon bands. Bands for the most part produce songs and albums that sound pretty similar; even wiith line-up changes or new producers, their music remains the same collection of beats, melodies, and feeling. So why can’t bands drastically change their sound?
I guess that would make them a different band, then. For example, I really enjoy Lifehouse, but many of the songs on their four albums have the same feel, with very few exceptions; anyone who has ever listened to Lifehouse knows what I’m talking about, as with the volume increases of the singer - they occur in the same pattern/fashion every song.
What am I trying to say? Nothing, really, just something about nothing.
So today two bros at my school started to fight. I resisted the extremely feeble urge to run over to the scene of the fight, and so did not witness, unlike the 3000 other denizens of my peer community, one guy without a shirt and both throwing punches at each other. I didn’t inquire as to what caused the fight, or who was fighting, or who won, but this did cause me to reflect upon the futility of settling minor conflicts through a physical altercation. I mean, unless one of the them knocks the other out cold, there really isn’t any point, either to fighting or to watching.
It was also interesting to see the massive mob instinct of almost everyone at my school. Violence and free food - guaranteed ways to produce a massive popular response.
Oh humanity, what little faith I have in you…
You realize how much someone means to you when a sentence with him/her changes your entire mood.
“Hold the person that you love closely if they’re next to you, Appreciate them to the fullest extent, and then beyond,
‘Cause you never really know what you got, until it’s gone.” - Immortal Technique, You Never Know
Peace.
I was psyched by the initial moments of listening to Immortal Technique. But then, it quickly became cliche and blatantly political. Political is fine, but not simple politic, such as Bush-bashing or anti-war rhetoric, as well as government conspiracies. But then again, it would be extremely difficult to rap about the intricacies of House incumbency advantage due to local newspaper coverage.
All in all, Immortal Technique flows well, has nice beats and interesting instruments, and is quite catchy. I wouldn’t mind supporting him, especially (or rather, only?) because he remains completely independent and underground.
And “You Never Know” is bomb. Listen.
So I was listening to N.W.A., which is commonly regarded as “one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap sub-genre, (Thank You Wikipedia)” and was pondering the usefulness of such politically motivated music. Most likely, the production of these N.W.A. albums served both a cathartic function and a commercial one; Eazy-E, MC Ren, and Ice Cube were relatively unknown at the band’s inception, and thus their appeal to the sociopolitical and economically-repressed population of Los Angeles and other poor urban areas capitalized upon these communities’ need for self-expression, of their outrage against continued and social and economic equality.
But in reality, the music of N.W.A. must not have changed anything; it did not spark any major revolution or change. Probably because the line “or maybe cuz I blast on the stupid-ass n***** when I’m playing with the trigger of an Uzi or an AK, cuz the police always got something stupid to say…” isn’t a very good motto to live by.