Modern Music

While my youngest daughter is home on winter break, she often works from 6am to 2pm.  On those days I take her to work, which necessitates getting up early to get my day started.  On some of these mornings I have MTV playing in the background, and shockingly, they actually play music in the morning.  Yes, actual music videos.  Well, I suspect that it depends no your definition of "music".

I know, I'm going to sound like an old guy, but so be it.  I honestly don't think much of the a-typical urban rap stuff sounds, as it is neither unique or even slightly interesting.  The visuals are equally boring, as once you've seen some scantily clad 18 year old "dancing" in a video, you've seen them all.  By and large the artists in these videos look and sound the same, as there are only so many ways you can do the "tough guy rapper" look.  Oh, and the grills look really stupid.  I will point out that one of the artists I've seen at least looks quasi-classy...that would be the rapper known as "Pitbull".

Actually his look kind of reminds me of the Rat-Pack, sans tie, circa 1962.  The music?  Not so thrilling, as his gimmick is the same as what every other rapper rants about, with the addition of frequent references to Cuba, where Mr Pitbull apparently hails from.  But hey, a jacket and dress shirt is better than a puffy black winter coat or 345lbs of gold chain (while bragging about "bitches").

Now in fairness, I do have some more urban music in my collection.  I like Alicia Keys/JayZ "Empire State of Mind" song.  I also have the Kanye West tune "Gold Digger", as I may have noted in the past.  Note that while I like the "Empire State of Mind" song, I absolutely love the Newark parody...

If you've ever been to Newark then you will definitely get this one.

So despite what you may read here, I am going to try and keep an open mind about music.  Actually I've been trying to listen to more classical music, and with my new Klipsch earbuds, I am actually really enjoying some stuff.  Ms Rivers must be proud of me, but I'm also not making any promises.

To end this rant, here's something very fitting:  one of the greatest rock-n-roll bands in the world singing about, well, rock-n-roll.  Ladies and gentlemen, time for some maximum R&B...

Watching Keith Moon and Pete Townshend reminds you of just how glorious music used to be, back when it involved instruments, singing and...well...talent.

Rock is dead they say....long live rock!