The Tracks of my Tears:

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

The Tears of a Clown:

Just to See Her:

In the first video, first the vocal track dropped out, then the instrumental track did. Ah, the technology of the early 1960s!

These videos serve to demonstrate just how far black popular music has fallen in the last 40 years...

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Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
www.reiterations.wordpress.com
www.foft.wordpress.com

"When I cease to preach salvation by faith in Jesus, put me into a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind is gone." - Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

I adore Mo-Town! But I despise rap and hip hop with the fury of a thousand fiery suns!

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Travis Speegle
Redeemer Presbyterian, PCA (Waco, Tx)
Pacific Cross Roads, PCA (Los Angeles, CA)


"When it comes to trustworthy theologians one can usually honor the rule of thumb that the deader the better."-Dr. John Hannah, DTS (of all places)

There's good rap and hip hop out there.

87-92 is known as the 'golden era' of hip hop - East Coast artists ruled the genre, and only put out things that were more positive and social-issue-conscious.

A few artists like Common and Little Brother still put out good stuff.

On the flip side, fill your eardrums with brothers like FLAME, CHRISTcentric and shai linne (Holy Hip Hop) and you'll not only hear good quality hip hop, but brothers taking time to expound on Biblical teachings and use the medium of hip hop as a platform to preach the gospel.

My ex and I were talking once about the decline of R&B/Urban Music and the direction it should have head in. While there are still a few good 'adult' artists out there (and even some of the older artists who still make albums, but don't get airplay), we found folks like DJ Rich Medina (hip hop, house and spoken word) and even a few of the 'popular' artists like Heather Headley (she was the voice of Nala on the Lion King...), Deborah Cox and a few others still put out some decent music.

What happened back in the early 90's with most record companies is that they noticed the potential for massive sales of 'quick money' artists (artists built on gimmicks and quick popularity and the 'now' rather than the long term).

For example, back in the day, artists took as much as up to 2 years to come out with an album, but when they came out with something, EVERY track on an album was a classic. Nowadays, it's 2-5 tracks (maybe 6-7) out of 14-18 tracks that are great ones.

Artists that were immensely popular 2-3 years ago for a few months are now in obscurity. Even looking back a YEAR ago, DJ Unk and his crew (famous for the now sambo-esque "Chicken Noodle Soup" song...) are now not even on the radar of most of the kids (12-19) that they were marketed to. But the record companies made a LOT of 'quick money' off of them. Likewise, even Soulja Boy is on the fade right now. By February, most of my students will be saying that his song was/is stupid just as they now say that Chicken Noodle Soup was a stupid song and they have no idea why they all used to like it.

A lot of R&B artists and hip hop artists know this (at least the smart ones do). That's why they get into production and/or fashion or something that still allows them to be associated with their genre, but makes them a large amount of money on the side.

It's not just R&B/Urban Music. The same model goes in the Pop Music industry, Rock and other areas. All the record companies (the major labels) follow the same business model in most of the 'popular' genres.

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K. Joel Gilliard
Theologically Correct dot Com
http://www.theologicallycorrect.com
Sunday School Teacher (Elementary 2), Grace Communion Church (EFCA) http://www.gchurch.org
The Blog: THINK! - Wrestlin' With Wordz -N- Ideaz