The nineties began with the grunge scene, an alternative style of rock and roll that revolutionized rock music today. This music that was once praised by MTV was gradually pushed out to make way for the sound of generic rap beats, watered down heavy metal and sugar coated pop tunes. The pattern of the nineties is nothing new. The seventies and eighties both saw fresh new music that preceded a pour attempt at a new innovative sound. In the seventies disco followed the likes of rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Pink Floyd.
The eighties began with such innovative bands as Dire Straits, Van Halen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and ended with groups like New Kids on the Block and Milli Vanilli that overlapped into the early nineties. The nineties began with an original brand of rock, alternative. This style of music produced bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice and Chains that revolutionized rock and roll. Some of these bands are still around today but are over shadowed by the trendy pop and rap The rock and pop groups of today are primarily concerned with an image they are trying to achieve through music videos.
Bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn are chief examples of groups who try to attain a hard-core image but are failing. They claim to have a large underground following but in reality they are just another MTV band that is identified by its multi-million dollar music videos. If you have to spend that much money on a video you must be compensating for something. This is true with groups like the Backstreet Boys, Nsync and Brittany Spears. Without their music videos they would be nothing.
The songs that these groups produce are very simple pop tunes that thrive off the bands look and fashion statements. The rap music of today shares many characteristics of the pop/rock industry. They are primarily concerned with money. It is not about the quality of the rhymes being released but about how many they can put out in a year. The result is music that is very monotonous and thin. The albums are released so frequently that people never get a chance to realize how one-dimensional their favorite rapper is, and are buying their next album.
The other side of the rap industry is filled with phonies. These rappers take old rap and pop songs and remix them with new lyrics and some new beats. It is sad to see people credit rappers like Puff Daddy or Will Smith with a song that was actually written by Sting or Stevie Wonder. The main reason for the rise of trendy pop and rap is MTV. They get stuck on a couple different types of music and then exploit it. Record labels see MTV as a way to get the band they promote to sell records. To do this they find bands to fit into the mainstream sound.
These bands hold positions in the top ten for a while but soon are thrown into the one hit wonder bin because their sound lacks originality. By the time this happens a couple million people have already spent fifteen of twenty dollars on their CD. You are at a loss and the record company is up several million dollars. Another reason why music of this sort thrives is because of the availability of it. All someone has to do is turn on their television and it is right in front of them. Nowadays just about every car being made has a CD player, which discourages people to listen to the radio.
People can go out and buy the CD they just heard on MTV and play their favorite song for however long they want to. The radio is a valuable resource for smaller or more underground bands to be heard. Without the radio many of those bands would disappear. If the past can predict the future than we are merely going through a phase that will lead into another great era of music. Maybe the fourth time around we will be prepared for what follows any great period of music and put a stop to it before it gets out of hand.