N.W.A. and music trends.

Well, lets start off with N.W.A. Definitely an interesting group. I think they are something...different...especially for the time period in which they performed. They were very out there - both lyrically and with their beats. I usually don't care what the lyrics say in songs, as long as I can sing along to them. But with this group, they go a little overboard with the cuss words. Which is a real shame. They, out of all the hip-hop groups we listened to, had the greatest beats. There is just something morally wrong - to me anyway - to be singing harsh, vulgar words throughout every line of a song.

Something that really sparked my interest was when Mr. A commented that N.W.A and some of the other groups could be categorized as "punk" hip-hop artists. I think that was completely correct and a really great comparison because that is exactly what N.W.A. was. Like I said in one of my earlier blogs, to me, punk is an attitude, a perspective of something. It is rebellious. Like The Clash, N.W.A. has similar rebellious titles, except their are just a little more vulgar:

"F*** the Police"

"Express Yourself"

"Parental Discretion Iz Advised"

"Protest"

All of these titles express encouragement or ideas of rebellion. It also made me question the fact that music kind of goes through life cycles. Plenty of other things go through life cycles, even if we don't notice it or even if they aren't actually "alive." Trends in clothing, for example. High-waisted clothing was popular a good 20-30 years ago. Guess what is popular and trending today? High-waisted shorts. Of course there are some improvements to the trend - new patterns and designs, but that is besides the point. The point is that the "life cycle" repeated. The same could be said for music. There was soft, sweet, cheery music in the 50's-early 60's. Then, we went to the louder, crazier stuff. Then we hit "punk" and rebellion. Then we hit, happy, make-you-feel-good hair-metal. Now we have loud and rebellious hip-hop. That kind of makes me think we might hit some softer, more tone-downed genres in the 90's. I know you think I should know music from the 90's, but I don't. And that's why I'm in this class. This general pattern has sort of continued through music, though their have been some adjustments to each genre every time it is repeated. I think it just goes back to the idea that we get sick of things and we want something "new." But really it's just recycled music made into something different.