The remix is back
August 18th, 2004 by Sarin
My car cd player is an Alpine that can play mp3 files burned onto a disc. I am able to fit hours and hours of music on one disc, and when I am driving alot I can always find music for whatever mood I am in. Currently right now I am hooked onto my country cd, but this morning I burned another mix cd of hip hop tracks. All of these tracks I found off LimeWire and are mostly remixes (I simply searched for ‘remixes’).
From what I am taking in, I am so blown away at how much the remix and mixtape scene has exploded in the past two years. While it was big back in 94 or 95, remixes and mixtapes are now currently the best choice for listening to new hip hop. Where else can you hear the latest Lil Jon beat or hear a song that features Eminem AND Mase. It’s disappointing that mainstream people don’t hear too much of the ‘hot’ hip hop songs out there just because they aren’t being force-fed like they do with music videos.
Being force-fed media doesn’t make you enjoy anything. A new artist probably takes about an extra month or so to grow on me because all the hype isn’t being pushed into my nueral system. Part of what makes these hip hop tracks so good is that you’re not being forced to listen to it. These artists are just doing songs to promote themselves, most of the time just having fun, and doing what hip hop is about. Community.
So if someone wants to forcefeed me bands that get too much attention just remember that alot of music comes in and out of my ears (this could mean bands like the new creed, or the new guns and roses) because I heard too much about them. I just hope someday someone will be able to respond if I ask them, “Hey did you hear that new Kanye remix?”
I might just dumb it down for them and be like, “Did you ever hear the live version of that song? Oh, it’s so great!”
But I’m not just player hating on pop or rock. It took me a good year to get into 50 Cent after all the hype went down, concluding that his last album is VERY GOOD. Sadly the hype will get to his head and now he will just plain suck.
Related Posts Share this post:
I guess in a way I’m saved by not knowing anything about the pop scene, new artists, etc. Basically I like the radio because there’s decent variety and if I hear a song I like it generally leads me to check out the artist more.
Honestly, though, I’m just a country girl at heart. I think it probably comprises more than half of my music collection at this point.
I think you have a point Sarin. It’s always tough to decide if you like a new artist because they’re good or because some media monster is saying they are. I think some of my favorite bands I had the luxury of discovering for my self (often times accidentally) before all of the hype started in.
This is also why I despise MTV with all my heart. It seems as if you’ve only, “made it” once you’re being played in heavy rotation at the top half hour of every TRL. Bands like New Found Glory and Yellowcard that have been around for many years are presented as some new and awsome artist. It totally invalidates all of the years of hardwork they have put in.
Yes MTV is a huge media monster. Every other station can ignore you, and the magazines can refuse to write about you, but to the eyes of teens and pre teens, you are “awesome”.
But that won’t be the case. Whoever gets exposure on MTV WILL get exposure in every possible outlet (Magazines, tv shows, stupid advertisement tie ins and such). It’s very exponential and labels will go to great lengths to try and promote an artist to the group who is the must susceptible of fooling for crap. Teenagers.
And even on country and punk, there is surely some artists at one point or another, that you didn’t want to get into, because too many people were overhyping them so much. Although maybe because I am exposed to too much musical crap, that I might just be musically tired and lazy.