The Forum: Selling Out and Joining the Mainstream

A sellout is anyone who willingly dumbs themselves down in the pursuit of profit. In the music industry this can be related to going mainstream and losing your core and original audience. The term has become a label of disrespect from the original fanbase in response to the new material being put out. Over the years, many artists and groups have succumbed to the term as their output quality decreases and their bank account figures increase.

The Forum: Pop Killed The Hip Hop Star

The year 2003 marked the first time the top 10 spots in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart were filled by urban artists. Almost half of those songs were by hip-hop artists. Fast forward to the year 2010, when anyone thinks of top hip-hop they think Jay-Z, T.I., Lil’ Wayne and Kanye. Since 2003, the mantra “hip-hop is dead” has spread and multiplied as the market becomes saturated by auto-tune, off-beat dances, and songs that make even the most liberal hip-hop heads squirm. The more popular and vast the urban/ hip-hop genre becomes, the more it is despised.

Appreciating Jazz with Cowboy Bebop

As I grow older I see myself becoming more interested in things my parents listened to when I was younger. This is not talking about the exciting stuff such as the Parliament Funkadelic or every single piece of Michael Jackson audio on tape. What I’m talking about is the music that bored me to tears and caused me to immediately switch the radio station whenever I got into the car. I know I wasn’t the only one, because jazz has been labeled the international “bore children to death music.” Now, decades after my first “torturing,” I see myself listening more and more to jazz and actually being interested in it.

The Forum: Labels of Love

There is no publicity like free publicity. For a marketer, there is no publicity like having someone pay you to advertise your product. This set-up is mostly seen as a part of the fashion industry, where a high-profile label can put their logo on a shirt and sell it to the general public. The logo doesn’t even need to be tweaked or in a “special edition” format, just a copy-paste-screen-print job. Even before a label can develop brand loyalty with it’s customers, many will see a random name on a T-shirt and automatically buy it.

Headphones: Terrace Martin - "808s and Sax Breaks"

Although it wasn’t the first, ever since Danger Mouse created “The Grey Album,” the famous mash-up between Jay-Z – “The Black Album” and The Beatles – “The White Album,” every DJ/ musician/ random person with an Internet connection has been trying to create the next great blend or mash-up. Despite the innovative and sometimes stupid works that have been birthed from that tape, I never felt any of it was truly groundbreaking or made me look at the original work differently. As I previously wrote, Kanye West – “808s & Heartbreaks” has recently become an album I’ve learned to appreciate the more I listen to it. As if on time, I’ve recently come across a mash-up/re-working of the album in the form of Terrace Martin – “808s & Sax Breaks.”

808s & Headaches: A Look Back at Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak

808s & Heartbreak was supposed to be the album of the year. Kanye West’s first album since his mother passed away, fans were waiting for his musical expression of anger, love and confusion. Without being morbid, the event of his mother’s passing was supposed to give the world the next great hip hop album. As a preview, the track “Love Lockdown,” an autotune filled, taiko drum driven, Kanye-singing “experiment” was unleashed to the general public. This Kanye, one that sounded like he was born inside a ‘80s Tetris machine, was not what people wanted. Despite the universal confusion and hope of a practical joke, 808s & Heartbreak was released November 2008 to a world that had no idea what to expect. This was an entirely new Kanye and many people just weren’t ready for it.

Beauty in the Breakdown

Becoming a celebrity is like signing a contract with the public. The fine print at the bottom of the page states that in exchange for fame and fortune all traces of privacy are null and void. If a celebrity chooses to complain or fight back against the intrusiveness of the public, they aren’t fulfilling their part of the deal. Celebrity is not a new profession and the transformation of private matters to public is not a new development.