4/14/12

It's Poppin'

What's it Gonna Be Folks?

Origins are pleasantly amusing in that they invoke a certain mystique. A sense of belonging while not truly belonging so that “we the masses” may become one with the “force” being transmuted. I am as guilty of this phenomenon as the next person. Fitting in while remaining aloof is the “high wire” we step so that we may retain our individuality. I harbor under no illusions that we have a collective gullibility (we do,) nor that we preoccupy ourselves with “pop” culture to a malignant degree. However, within each of us is the capacity to appreciate truth and beauty. The Truth should set us free, but it wavers in its infancy and becomes that which is not named. Beauty becomes its antithesis and we extol hate, fear and greed as worthy traits.

Look within the deeper meanings of our existence and you find an emptiness. A gaping hole to be filled with anything to make our lives whole. Money, sex and power are temporary fixes to our greater demand. Violence satiates this need, but is self defeating. Blood can only satisfy the truly misogynistic and what is left for the rest of us? The accumulation of treasure is non productive; for every shiny object gained there is a commiserate shiny object lost. Power is not a difficult process to fathom. Some may think of it as strength, while others may believe it is knowledge of secret ordeals. Purely and simply, it is politics and the degree to which an individual will extend his or her force to other individuals. Sex is but a byproduct and institutionalized step to insure compliance.

I began this "blah-gurgle-gurgle" as an attempt to understand something far beyond my grasp. Pop music, in general and Rap (hip-hop) music, in particular has been a chimera to me. As with most “pop” culture I am stifled by my inability to comprehend both its significance and its pertinence. Believe me when I say I have tried and I would gladly welcome a fresh approach to this problem, but realistically I am flummoxed. Rap killed the metaphor and the rest of Pop has diluted the witty rhyme and clever turn of a phrase to a disneyfied flow of sickly, sweet syrup. I have no blame to throw around because as a whole most of us have become so homogenized we don't even realize it ourselves.

We have lost the capacity to criticize. Criticism is not a pejorative discipline. It is a reflection of what we are and what we hold True. In my opinion the critics are the last vestige of our journalistic heritage. When we have degraded to criticizing journalism, journalism itself is lost. I do not condone criticism borne of hate, fear, greed or any of its subsidiary units. That is not true criticism. I have learned to take my critical reading with a grain of salt. Do you?

Blind obedience and following is disgusting in any of its forms. I am only saddened by a willingness to embrace security over liberty. Fear of imaginary beings is tantamount to belief in same. May we survive this cognizant onslaught.

3 comments:

High Arka said...

What rap made you feel this way? Let's start there.

Ebon Krieg said...

well, I must clarify that my use of generalizations and universals is a fault I try to minimize. What i should have said and will in my edit is that "pop" music (whether disneyfied, technoed, countrifried or "hip-hop, et al) has left our appreciation of music somewhat stilted.
Thanks for calling me on this error. I did not follow my usual pattern in writing and I produced it on the fly. That and I was listening to my niece's music and heard one too many "like a..." for my brain to endure.

High Arka said...

The Sad State of Art, as it were, applies to music, too, not just books/movies. In that sense, it's appropriate to complain about a lot of rap. Don't give up the ghost.