Is Hip-Hop really dead?

1stclass23 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:10:11 +0000

Listening to music in the 21^st century is different from all other eras. That much is true, but what makes our own music culture more dangerous than other times? If you listen to rap/hip-hop/R&B, everything that we knew has gone. What we have left is what we replaced, computers and technology. What I mean by this is that, we are being taken over by technology and are using it as a crutch to do all of our work in society today.

T-pain sounding really crappy.

Have you’ve listened to the newest hit rap or hip-hop songs? Examples of these popular artists include: T-pain, Akon, and etc. These are, I believe the main flagship of the new use of voice rendering technology, called the vocoder or also the auto-tuner. Other artists such as: Kanye West, Chris Brown, lil Wayne, and Snoop Dogg have followed suit. I feel disappointed in some of them, especially Kanye because of his unique style that he tries to portray in his music. All of the artists just mentioned are having their voices synthesized, and as a result, the vocoder produces a sound that is similar to a robot. This is ruining how music was traditionally performed.

It’s not that I don’t respect these artists, I like them, but I feel that they’re all starting to sound the same to me. Remember those songs back in the early to late 90’s? Cher, daft punk and some other techno artists were the first to use this kind of technology. So this isn’t a relatively new kind of technology, it is just used more in recent years. After hearing T-pain’s first album for the first time, it immediately reminded me of those techno-like songs in the 90’s. There has been a more and more use of technology and usage of drums, kits, synths, anything that can be produced by a computer is being used more and more.

They, I think are the ones who can only use this technology.

Many people listening to these genres have argued that “hip-hop is dead”. I think that is true to a certain point. The old Hip-Hop has died, and a new one has emerged. While taking an English class this summer, we studied about technology as a medium, meaning, how it affects our society. This is one of the affects of technology that are taking place. Computers killed the way we used to do things and has created a new way. Thus, I think the use of the human voice in this way will eventually get old because of how their effects create a similar effect on each artist’s voice.

When I see music or anything that is has relevance to technology, I see it being ‘infected’ (for lack of better words) and slowly being turned into efficient, bland tasting, music.

Comparisons of PV and LIVE:

Lil’ Wayne:

T-Pain:

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Is Hip-Hop really dead?