pop – Xhimbapoku

In 1960s and 1970s, the American music scene was dominated by the Soul and Jazz music. With other music genres including hip hop coming up, the music scene began changing, and today, the American music landscape has significantly changed. Most people would probably agree with the fact that the quality of the music content that artists are producing nowadays is not as good as the 90s music. Hip hop has historically been used by artists as a tool for highlighting social injustice, and in 90s, artists such as Tupac sung with passion often bringing to the fore the struggles of the minorities and the poor.

The ability of the 90s artists to infuse the styles their predecessors used before primarily played a role in these artists producing good music. The traditional music including folk, jazz and blues gave rise to the R&B because artists would always borrow the rhythm of these sounds to create good songs. During the 80s and 90s, the society strictly enforced family values, and there were times when artists received condemnation for using explicit lyrics in their songs. This probably shaped how artists made music content. When NWA began releasing songs, their popularity grew especially among youthful minorities some of whom were victims of police profiling.

The American music landscape in the 90s was largely diverse with artists such as Dido producing pop music to Usher releasing R&B songs. Musicians such as Destiny’s Child became popular for releasing songs such as Say my Name. The diversity and versatility of the music during 90s is what makes the 90s music good to the ear. In contrast to the 90s, the contemporary music scene is chaotic, just to say the least. The emergence of the “mumble rappers” has watered down the quality of the rap music. Artists of other genres of music including pop have disappeared from the music scene, and not many American artists produce good songs like artists used to twenty years ago.

It appears the era of the good music is long gone, and for those of us who grew up in 90s, we can only look back and appreciate how 90s music kept us entertained. The legacy of this music will last forever, and even though the contemporary artists have been producing and releasing some good songs, what we have today cannot match the 90s music. Therefore, this is a challenge to artists and producers to put in efforts to produce good songs because as music listeners, we yearn for good music.

The growth of the popularity of the pop culture has been aided by technological advancement because as new technologies emerged, entertainers and musicians have found new ways to create and share content and music. Facebook and other social media platforms, for instance, are growing into useful tools for the artists who want to advertise and share their music. With exposure of more individuals to the pop culture, people have been able to engage in self-evaluation based on the message they hear or the images they watch. Increased exposure to the pop culture has resulted to a situation in which kids and some adults see entertainers as role models.

The people culture has tremendously changed in the last four decades because the content that is considered acceptable today would not have been acceptable in the 1970s. The pop culture has primarily influenced how people view what is moral and what is not moral, and this is particularly seen with LGBT. The issue of the LGBT is one that has always been marred by controversies considering that those who came out publicly as being members of the gay community in the 1960s through to 1980s were attacked. Due to the influence of the popular culture, however, people’s views about homosexuality have changed, and more and more people are becoming tolerant and learning to live with members of the gay community.

Unfortunately, the pop culture has its darker side that should make us all concerned. As a leading producer and exporter of the popular culture, the United States (U.S.) took a back seat as artists made music laced with messages of violence. The rampant violence in Chicago can be attributed to the message portrayed by artists in music. The rap music, borne out of the need to highlight the plight of the American minorities, is doing the opposite of what it was initially intended to do because it ignited and inflamed Black-on-Black violence that still continues to date.

Is it a high time that the government should control the message sent by artists out there? The pop culture, despite its benefits, raises serious issues that require the right interventions. Government censorship is necessary to control the kind of information artists can put in their songs. However, this should be done in a manner that it doesn’t create an impression among the affected that the government is curtailing the freedom of speech.