What happend in black society, guys are aspiring to become Rappers, rather than get into jazz or good music?

Question

The young people , many are solely rap listeners. some of them want to be rappers, and that's it. It used to be people liked to learn instruments and sing...but what's happening these days?

I'm not part of the black community but i see MTV and stuff like that..and the music promoted by MTV producers and the black community there is Hip hop or rap. that's it.
Where's the jazz, where't the blue grass, where's the blues, where's the soul music...or rock or whatever?

Answer 1

Much as with anything good, greed and familiarity has that tendency to corrupt it.

It hasn't so much as left all of black culture, but it has diminished significantly...much as R&B and the Blues. But jazz has gotten pretty much out of the mainstream America as well. I mean there are alot of talented jazz musicians today, both black and white (latino and asian as well), but go by your local music stores and count how many aisles/sections/racks are dedicated to jazz or blues, then compare it with rock, rap, or country. This isn't knocking these genres at all. I'm a black man and I listen to these as well, but I primarily listen to jazz. I am finding it is getting harder and harder to find ANY jazz to purchase, unless it is online. It isn't profitable, but for better or worse, rap is. Especially since you really don't need to put in alot of capital to make a return. You sample a beat, you put some words to it (truth or lies), put it on a tape, and you basically started your career. Jazz can get a little expensive...now. Even at a pawn shop, a decent trumpet will run about $300. Then the time to put in on learning the instrument. It adds up. Plus when was the last time you saw any jazz musician in a video with good looking girls on stage with them, and them driving expensive cars.

Next, you don't have the venues for jazz, or R&B for that matter, as 20 or 30 years ago. Except in a few key cities, very few American cities have places a person can go to and listen to jazz. But other genres can pack in stadiums. Promoters are going to promote where the money is for them and their clients.

Conversely, jazz has lost that stigma of being "shocking". When it first started, much like rap right now, it was "appalling" to listen to Louis Armstrong or Count Basie, unless you were in the right mindset. If you were a white kid what better way to rebel against mom and dad then to listen to black musicians play "awful" jazz. Then something happened to where mom and dad started liking it or the kids grew up and jazz became somewhat mainstream. The kids started learning it, and became as good playing it. It happened with R&B and now rap. (Look at Eminem)

Nowadays, jazz is looked as not so much the music of kooks, but as much a sign of affluence as listening to Beethoven or Bach. You have the stigma of younger kids not getting it, and rap and heavy metal are going to that point as well. (Try talking to an 18 yo about Kurtis Blow or Quiet Riot or Kiss.)

We could blame MTV, but what would be the point. They were against rap in the 80's as well. It wasn't until you had Run DMC play alongside Aerosmith that it really started taking off.

Jazz isn't dead. Just go to Europe. They still love it. But as a "black" art form, it has taken a hiatus. I have a feeling, in a few years, rap will have left being a predominently "black" art form, to being taken over by the next new music form.

Answer 2

It's really bad what has happened to black music since the 90's. I think it started with too few producers, Babyface, Guy, Diddy, rappers.

Plus, Martha Wash sued the executives for using her voice and putting up models to sing the songs. I think the studios just said they would use a bad singer with a pretty face.

The music industry has pigeon-holed black artist and then push white artist that supposedly sound soulful. Hence, Josh Stone, Christina Aguilar, Nora Jones.

The artists just have no talent now. And the industry is pushing an image that is not black America and has convinced young people that it is what our life is about.

Forget the question about becoming a jazz musician. What happened to the aspirations to become doctors, attorneys, teachers, writers and other inspiring members of societies.

Check out Daniella Cotton, Amos Lee, Chocolate Genius, or Ryan Shaw.

Answer 3

A couple reasons; Society is getting lazier and lazier looking for quick fame, and riches, and with advertising the way it is, rap is the only thing supposedly "Selling". Also, everyone is obssessed with looking "hard" and "tough" without actually having any value. People follow ridiculous trends, and listen to whatever anyone else listens to.

Actually, if you follow rap, you will have noticed a terrible decline in the quallity of rap and hip-hop. It's incredibly trite, and repetitive, and every artist now sounds the same. There's very little originality left in rap. Where jazz has and always will be timeless, and endless in it's ability to amaze and entertain.

Answer 4

I do not think it is only blacks who have embraced the current mainstream culture but on TV these days, there seem to be only music videos and mainstream rock and rap and that is what they see and that is what is glorified. Jazz is falling in America not just because the black kids want to become rappers but because Americans are going for what is trendy and whatever takes the least amount of thought to appreciate.

Jazz requires its listener to listen intelligently and people these days have very low attention spans.

Answer 5

Yeah, its a shame. The black jazz masters have so much dignity (although they had their personal problems). they gave their lives to music.

The rappers of today are just ego and money hungry. They don't give a $hit about music, or musical creation.

I think its the way it is today because the media doesn't give the kids anything good to choose from, so they just choose the least smelly of the $hit they know.

MTV is the best thing for the music business.
MTV is the worst thing for music.

Answer 6

'

> So few people, or blacks, are really poor in America.
> Plenty of social assistance, but I only know of my
> area. They, blacks specifically, have been coming
> down here for years and enjoying(or feeding off)
> the social system. This isn't generalization. I
> also don't know what the situation is in Chicago
> or New York.

> Blacks who were playing music when BB King
> was a little kid, they were poor. Real poor. Faced
> a lot more racial hatred than any black guys
> who came up in the 60's. Thats politics for
> ya. B.B. King's parents were not middle-class.

> So I think some of the younger blacks might
> steer clear of their heritage. For any reason.
> And not many blacks went to see Bud Powell
> or Dizzy. Not many Americans saw those guys,
> unless fans traveled up to the New England states.
> In Europe, where Thelonius and Dexter Gordon
> played, the audience were mostly Europeans.


>
>
/
>

Answer 7

You relate to things you experience or your surroundings. They can relate to rap music. Hip hop and rap made mtv what is today. I remember when vh1 refused to support hip hop said it was a fad and wouldnt last. Mtvs ratings sky rocketed and vh1s flat lined. Now even vh1 cant refuse to support the fad they once called hip hop . For the record Im not black either, just a lover of talented music of all genres. I miss the blues myself, the grimey smoke filled rooms blues.

Answer 8

LOL WOW ...i do not aspire to be any of the things you have listed... I'm studying Civil Engineering ...i hope you can stop with the ignorance ...do you live in some farm in the country or something? The careers you listed inspire alot of the youth because of the money and lifestyle depicted on TV....its like saying why do all white want to be actors and singers?...ignorance

Answer 9

Money for self edification...Imagine wearing that gold sh*t around your self..pretending to be somebody important..just to get your d*ck sucked by anybody..that shite is phoney and they kill each other over it...? Whaaa...? Give me Public Enemy...or even The Gourds bluegrass version of "Sipping on Gin and Juice"...Me and my 'posse'..reminds me fighting skinheads in the 70's...Sh*t..

Answer 10

im just 15 but i completey understand you..its terrible i hope it changes somehow