How Pitchfork Struck a Note in Indie Music

Time ^ | 8/15/10 | Claire Suddath

[freedumb2003]

If you dont like what you hear, make some yourself. Or support/help a friend who is. If you have an educated ear perhaps you can help guide someone getting started.

Karaoke is about as "good" as it gets for me... I do all right, but Simon would say "that sounds like Karaoke."

[Borges]

That’s interesting because I too thought that the average 15 year old Rap fan has virtually no interest in 1980s Rap as opposed to a Rock fan of the same age who could be interested in The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

[Mr. Blonde]

But those same 15 year old rock fans would probably be a lot less interested in Buddy Holly, Elvis, etc. Which would seem a lot closer to what 80’s rap is. I think Dr. Dre’s The Chronic continues to sell well to be almost 20 years old. Younger rap fans would probably remain interested in Notorious B.I.G. and other 90s rappers.

I’m sure the people actually buying old rap cds are older people, just like it is with older rock music.

[wideawake]

That’s interesting because I too thought that the average 15 year old Rap fan has virtually no interest in 1980s Rap as opposed to a Rock fan of the same age who could be interested in The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

The thousands of 15 year olds that I maneuver through every weekend at the Jersey Shore definitely skew more toward hip hop fandom than rock, but the rock fans are not Beatles fans.

I'll make the following observations, admittedly anecdotal and specific to the Mid-Atlantic region:

(1) Young hip hop fans are, as one would expect, mostly fans of the artists of the moment and the way they learn about older artists is largely through "collabos" - i.e. guest spots by such artists on younger artists' records.

(2) Young rock fans are also mostly fans of artists of the moment. The only older artists they seem to care about, judging from t-shirts and what's playing on their systems, are Led Zeppelin and to a lesser extent The Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana. The girls seem to like Bon Jovi as well.

(3) Most hip hop fans, young or older, do not care about 1980s hip hop - the key year in hip hop history is probably 1993. The 1980s were about elaborate sampling, simplistic rhymes and boom-bap beats - all of which sounds dated to the modern ear. 1993 saw the emergence of the Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and Nas - dark, funky samples and cleverly-constructed rhymes about life on the streets: this is the era that sounds classic, not dated, to the hip hop ear. The rock analogy is someone who listens to current rock, will also listen to The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin (the rock equivalent of the Wu and Nas) but who draws the line at Elvis and Gene Vincent.

(4) In contrast, rock fans generally do not seem to care about rock music recorded between 1980 - 2000 except for Nirvana and Guns N' Roses. Soundgarden and Alice In Chains were huge bands in 1993 - the only people who still care about those bands, by and large, are people who were 16-20 years old at the time they were popular.

You will see 15 year olds at a Jay-Z show today (and Jay-Z's debut was in 1995 - i.e. when they were born) but you do not see too many 15 year olds at Soundgarden reunion shows.