UWE.....
I think you mistook my disdain of rap/HipHop and a third of the NYC area radio stations no longer in English, with Black and Hispanic musicians playing rock/funk/salsa/whatever. I have no problem with that at all and that is what makes music great.
My gripe is with rap/HipHop and the wave of Spanish language/music radio/TV that has squeezed American rock/pop off the air and underground.
Personally, I have always felt that rap should have not be classified as music but, instead, under the "Spoken Word" category. Like old 60s Beat poets reading poetry over bongo drums were.
HipHop with musicians and actual singers is OK...but guys who cannot sing a note and only rap...Spoken Word.
But I guess you can't argue with sales numbers or else that stuff would not have taken over 90 percent of music TV and radio. But it's the vicious cycle....if it wasn't getting the AirPlay and exposure, it wouldn't be selling. So, it's what the labels are making money on and what the Music TV stations are making money on.
Just sad when you hear kids blasting that stuff and then comment that " no one plays guitars anymore."
The only point that is missed is that rap, as a song form, has a short shelf life. I cannot see it as songs that will likely be "covered" by future artists. It seems like an art form that survives largely on one-offs. That is quite the opposite of what popular music has lived on over the past 50 years, when great songs are covered and recycled by each new generation of artists.
I AM surprised that rap/HipHop has lasted as long as it has. I figured it would be like disco and die out within a decade. When they started with the vocoders and the pitch shifter Chipmonk high voices, I thought it had run its course and become a parody of itself....but nope, still here. I though it had gotten to the point that goofy hair metal had reached in the late 80s, where all the bands started to look and sound the same and the genre became a parody of itself and died.
Regarding CLEAR CHANNEL and the other radio chains that now program vast chains of sound alike radio.....I fully agree that is also a major problem.
As a former FM radio DJ, that nightmare began back in the mid-1970s when "Affirmative Action" was put into law. Before that, when you wanted to be a radio DJ in America, you were hired based on your voice talent and knowledge of music...and you had to pass a fairly difficult FCC written test to get your radio broadcast license. You had to know how to read and adjust the radio transmitter, basic electronics and other crazy stuff. It was NOT and easy test and you really needed to pass it to get on-air.
So....enter "Affirmative Action" and it's attack on American broadcasting, to get more minorities on-air. Even if they had a decent radio voice and knew music....many could not pass the required FCC test. Hell, many did not know the music either.
So....as the FCC/U.S. government was forcing radio and TV stations to hired more minorities as on-air talent and they realized they could not pass the requirements....the FCC did away with the test to get your license. That was the first nail in the coffin of American radios. THEN, as stations hired these new radio DJs and they did not know the music, programming tightened up. Stations stopped letting all the great radio DJs choose their own music to air and started posting playlists. That led to the Program Directors who were getting the better ratings to be deemed "geniuses" and their formats getting licensed out to other stations to clone them for similar ratings to cash in on advertising...and after decades of this bullshit, we now have massive chains of the same radio formats, like CLEAR CHANNEL.
And it all started with the well intentioned concept of "Affirmative Action." Ironically, the Black guy my station hired was really good and knew the music too. His first day on-air was following me after my midnight to six a.m. slot. I buzzed him in when he rang the doorbell and the light had lit up, while I was on mic doing a commercial. When I was done, I turned around and got startled because I was not told he was Black and the radio station was in the middle of the 'hood. He laughed and said, "wasn't expectin' a nig*er, was ya?" I always remembered that opening line. He was a funny guy and we became good friends. He ended up holding the record in America for the DJ who was at the same station the longest...something like 25 years, I think. He ended up getting shot to death while collecting rent from a tenant of his in another part of the 'hood in town. Sad ending.
I actually left that station and went to its competition in town, when I got offered the Program Director job...They hired me as a "Hispanic Female" on the books and told me to "hide if anyone comes in who looks like they are from the FCC." I'm sure I was one of the only white guys who got hired because of "Affirmative Action."